Heuristic Evaluation as a Complement to Usability Testing: A Case Study in Web Domain

Abstract

Usability testing is one of the most used methods to define the level of usability of a software product. However, there is always uncertainty to determine the best method that complements user testing in a depth usability assessment. Nowadays, the concern of many software developers is to identify an appropriate methodology, whose evaluation methods could be capable of measuring all usability aspects of a user interface. For this reason, we conducted a heuristic evaluation as a preliminary step to the implementation of a usability test, in order to determine in which extent these methods complement each other, and establish the gaps which are covered by each of them. The heuristic evaluation was performed by five specialists in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, who identified a total of fifty-nine usability problems in a transactional web site. Subsequently, a usability test was conducted with the participation of eight postgraduate students of a master's program in Informatics Engineering. The results show that most of the usability problems which were detected during the usability testing, had already been identified by the heuristic evaluation. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in the importance that was given to each problem. Usability experts emphasized in aspects that were not relevant to end users.

Validation in the Web Domain of a Formal Process to Evaluate the Usability of Software Applications: An Approach based on the Heuristic Inspection

“…These techniques are known as "usability evaluation methods" (UEM) and allow specialists to conclude systematically if the elements and properties of the interface design contribute to reach the desired degree of usability [3]. The test with users or user testing has always been one of the most employed methods to measure how usable the software interfaces are since it provides direct information about how people use the system to identify the exact problems with a specific interface [12]. However, in order to achieve accurate results, it can be needed the participation of a significant number of users for the application of this method in real scenarios, involving hundreds of users in some cases, depending on the magnitude of the software [25].…”

“…However, the most reported approach in the literature is the Nielsen's proposal [21]. The severity ratings established by Nielsen are presented in Table I, and an own proposal to rate the frequency is presented in Table II [12].…”

Usability Evaluation Method based on ISO/IEC SQuaRE: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…Otaiza et al (2010) proposed a method to choose the right usability evaluation on some transactional web applications, and Heuristic Evaluation is defined as the most efficient technique of comparison seven methods [14]. Freddy Paz (2015) argued that Heuristic Evaluation was conducted to complement the Usability Testing. The second technique is considered necessary to evaluate a software product and website.…”

“…At this stage of Usability Testing, users will rate the website, and at the stage of Heuristic Evaluation, the experts will find the fault usability. In the end, it is not only to clarify which site is good or bad, but also to add those of experts in improving the performance of a website [15]. Therefore, important to know how to spread the use of empirical methods, analytical methods, and the combination of them.…”

Influence of Adopting a Text-Free User Interface on the Usability of a Web-based Government System with Illiterate and Semi-Literate People

“…Usability testing discovered major and minor problems frequented by users. This leads to heuristics evaluation considered a complement to usability testing and these two usability methods can provide exhaustive usability evaluation [33]. Table 3 shows the discovered problems based on severity.…”