#heuristic evaluation

“Bạn đã từng sử dụng một website/app với giao diện trông thật chuyên nghiệp, nhưng khi thao tác thực tế lại cảm thấy khó chịu và bất tiện?”

Dù đội ngũ Product có thể đã dành rất nhiều công sức để xây dựng sản phẩm đáp ứng nhu cầu người dùng, nhưng trải nghiệm thực tế đôi khi lại không như mong đợi! Do đó, phát triển sản phẩm không phải là một quy trình tuyến tính mà là một vòng lặp liên tục của thử nghiệm, đánh giá và tối ưu. 

Vậy làm sao để nhận diện và khắc phục các vấn đề về trải nghiệm người dùng một cách hiệu quả, trước khi sản phẩm được tung ra thị trường? Có nhiều cách để tiếp cận bài toán này, nhưng một trong những phương pháp phổ biến và có tính hệ thống nhất chính là Heuristic Evaluation.

Vậy chính xác thì Heuristic Evaluation là gì? Phương pháp này mang lại lợi ích gì cho quá trình thiết kế? Và làm thế nào để thực hiện nó một cách hiệu quả? Hãy cùng khám phá trong bài viết dưới đây!

I have recently completed a quick heuristic review of an application for a prospective client. This was done using the Don Norman 10 Heuristics. It was interesting to review an application using each of these heuristic and opened my eyes to more issues that I may have seen without using them. 

Heuristic evaluations can be used as a framework to review a system, but also for competitor analysis, and as a grounding for design recommendations.

There are many different ways you can present a heuristic evaluation - giving scores for each checklist item, but also for competitor analysis it is interesting to display scores graphically in a spider digram, with competitors laid on top of each other, to see where each company performs best/worst.

In addition, when performing a heuristic evaluation on a mobile application, it is important to take into account the native design principles e.g. iOS design and material design etc. 

More simple evaluations can be done by simply looking page by page at an application and score each for design impact (low, med, high) and user impact (low, med, high) and therefore understand which pages need the most attention.]

Once the evaluation has been done, a conclusion/summary should be written to summarise the findings and make recommendations.

There’s a word, Heuristic. The dictionary defines it as: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods. Where has this word gone today? Where are these methods taught in school today? Where has the ability to make mistakes gone in today’s society? 

We, in America, are afraid of failure. I honestly believe this to be truth. From big banks, to car conglomerates. We shun failure and experimentation and we strive for success by all means. We cheat, we steal, we lie, and we scrape our way to the proverbial top by all means necessary; and along with it, our integrity. 

We have forgotten the purity of experience by heuristic means. 

Often times we hear that is is indeed okay to fail. But let’s be honest, it’s never been outwardly accepted. To fail is to be shunned; to be ostracized. Which in turn places a stigma on our own psyche. How dare we be bold or attempt something new, or even, think different. What a concept. 

I’m afraid of failure. As I write this post I worry about future job prospects, and if I’ve made the right decision regarding my degree path or even choice to stay in my hometown for college. At the root of this all is my own heuristic validation. 

PEAK is an educational App, which is aimed to help training brain functionalities on a daily basis. PEAK is a product of collaboration with Cambridge University’s Department of Psychiatry combining clinical practice and gameplay learning.

Duration: 2 Days                                                     Test Project: Thought process

 To gain outside information for my short project I sent out a mini Survey, researching people’s expectations for a learning app. The outcome showed me that gamification is a required motivation factor especially for busy people and that they prefer to use such application on their commute.

Even more interesting that push-notifications were wanted in order to remind on a regular training and also that there is a need for information about how and that it actually works.

Next I created a Task Analysis, for using the App for a daily training, and broke the process down step-by-step. For each I elevated positive as well as negative aspects based on own experiences and assumptions due to a lack of time to test the product.

Doing the same for the competitors Elevate and Lumosity with post-its created a great overview to break down the different steps and see where there is a great opportunity for PEAK to improve in.

Through putting the details into a Competitive Analysis I came to following main conclusions I wanted to evaluate on:  

-       information about training benefits were hardly given and definitely have the ability to be improved

-       in comparison to its competitors PEAK lacks in walkthrough functionalities such as the ability to review the walkthrough while getting to know a new game and finding the walkthrough easily

Creating a Persona based on my survey research, own assumptions and knowledge I found that the most important features for the app is the need to complement the willingness of learning and growing with a lack of time and a lacking ability of memory due to over exposing to external influences.

Using my Post-it wall again I created a User Journey to visualize the emotional journey of the persona while using the app. It shows that the main problem lies in the uncertainty in what way the app is actually helping the user to expand their brain capacity and also the frustration of not remembering the game rules and not recognising the game clearly.

             To propose a solution I took the Game Card and redesigned it to have clearer information and gave the user to ability to review the walkthrough when and how they want.

Next Steps:

 As this project is based on assumptions and a lack of time the next step would be to first test PEAK as well as competitors in comparison through Usability Testing; also to research deeper into the psychological side to fully understand the progress and benefits for the individual user. Then creating a MVP based on the research findings which then to test through User Testing. After that: iterating the MVP and testing again until a happy solution is found.

Further I would like to suggest recreating the dashboard and show the information given clearer and in combination with a potential training progress for the user.

Another idea is to give the user more encouraging reminders (on request) to engage further into their training and growth-potential.

As this App requires a lot of research and specific psychological knowledge I want to highlight that this heuristic evaluation is based on assumptions only and shows only the beginning of the thought-process of a long term project!