Usability Heuristic Evaluation

“A heuristic evaluation is a method for finding usability problems in a user interface design.”

-- Nielsen Norman Group

After scanning though APP ratings in App Store, our group decided to conduct a heuristic evaluation for “Best Buy (Canada)”, whose rating is much lower than what we expected. Trying to find some problems behind the UI design, and then, to figure out if there are some solutions we can provide to improve its usability performance.

Task Flow

To rationalize the whole analyzing process and to fit into the project timeline, we picked a main task flow of buying a laptop to see what problems we would come across.

1. Open App and search for laptop

2. Go through the product list to find the desired one

3. Pick one laptop, add it to shopping cart and continue to checkout

4. Enter the personal information for shipping

5. Finish checking out and place the order

Violations & Re-Designs

Severity Rating

To quantify the rating process, we create a metric to get the severity for each identified problem based on frequency, impact, and persistence on a scale of 0-4.

Violation 1

#4 Consistency and standards

Some featured products link away from the App.

3.0 / 4
since this problem is hightly persistent and impacts the user’s flow

- Add an external link icon

- Different Card Style

Violation 2

#7 Flexibility and efficiency of use

Best Buy Only switch is an advanced feature but too easy for basic users to notice.

3.0 / 4
for this problem happens each time searching and impacts the speed of finishing the task

- Hide “Best Only” toggle

- May move it to Filter

Violation 3

#8 Aesthetic and minimalist design

There is an overwhelming amount of filter options.

3.0 / 4
because this frustrating problem happens every time the user filters a search and there’s no way to avoid it

- Organize filters to improve readability

- Add category titles

Violation 4

#6 Recognition rather than recall

Applied filters are not visible unless going back to “filter”.

2.7 / 4
for the problem happens each search, but the user doesn’t always need to recall filters, and can still finish the task

- Add filter capsules to the search page for users’ convenience of recalling

Violation 5

#1 visibility of system status

The checkout line does
not provide any waiting
time estimates.

3.3 / 4
since a confusing checkout reminder could cause users to stop their purchase

- Add clear estimation of waiting time

- Provide queue position the user is at

Violation 6

#9 Recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

The form does not give
any error messages for non-existent emails.

3.0 / 4
because this could mess up the shipping information, but only if a mistake was made

- Add real-time error messages for incorrect information input

Re-designed Task Flow

1. Open App and search for laptop

2. Go through the product list

to find the desired one

3. Pick one laptop, add it to shopping cart

and continue to checkout

5. Finish checking out and place the order

UI Library

For better and communication of design assets and documentation for later development and maintenance, I created the UI library based on recreating the original screens and re-designs