The heuristic evaluation helped identify aspects of the interface that required minor changes, such as more descriptive labels, and suggested which areas could benefit from a complete redesign, such as the browse tools.  Immediately after the heuristic evaluation, the backend was put into place, which also brought a number of heuristic problems to light, for example, the original design did not indicate how many records were retrieved, or provide a way to navigate through a large result set.  Feedback from the Survivors Registry division at the Museum revealed additional problems with labels, and reinforced some of the evaluator’s suggestions, specifically the crowding caused by the “Revise Search” frame.  Changes to the interface are organized below according to site page.

General

• Provided more accurate labels—“Search Support” used instead of “Search Services”, and “Browse names by place” used instead of “Browse by place”.
• Improved overall navigation—deactivated current link, and grouped menu items.
• Adjusted frame configuration to accommodate smaller screens.
• Provided link back to quick search—changed “Home” to “Home (Search)”

Start Page

• Made search more flexible—integrated Surname and Birthplace search.
• Clarified Birthplace search fields—added “City/Town” and “Country” labels, and removed “Select Country” from pull-down menu since it implied that a selection was required (same change was made to Advanced and Revise Search).

Advanced Search

• Added links to tools that might require additional information, specifically “Learn more about Thesaurus.”
• Removed extraneous search options—“none” and “select all” were redundant.
• Used consistent field names for entry fields and sort options—“Surname” used instead of “Surname” and “Last Name”
• Changed “select search option” to “search options” since the former implied that a selection was required.
• Changed “Maximum number of records” to “Maximum number of records per page” to more accurately describe this option.

Browse names by Surname

• Improved navigation scalability—use individual letters, i.e., “A”, and the first two letters of the surname, i.e., “Aa”, to help navigate through long lists.

Search Results

• Provided result feedback—“ (number here) Names found.” shows the number of records retrieved.
• Incorporated navigation through large result set—“Back” and “Next” links appear when more than 25 records retrieved.
• Included additional record information—source name added below short record.

Individual Records

• Simplified display of additional records for the same individual and their relatives—links are provided from within the record, and the text was changed to “Information about John Doe also appeared in:” and “Information about the following relatives was also found:”
• Clarified instructions— “ Make Connection” submission features were vague.
• Improved organization of information—the layout of Survivors Registry records is now more reflective of their content.

Some of the heuristic evaluation suggestions were not implemented due to time constraints. In particular,  we realized that improvements to Browse Images and Sources would require a specialized task analysis.  Changes to the “Save search results” tool will also be postponed, with more attention directed towards the search result display and navigation.  After the pilot user study, we will determine whether some of the other suggestions should be implemented, such as removing the Advanced Search link and the top and/or bottom frame in search results.