HumanSaga Heuristic Evaluation

Thank you for agreeing to be a Heuristic Evaluator!

You will be evaluating the prototype for our final project, HumanSaga. HumanSaga is a worldwide web site with a database of historical events, which can be used to explore history by creating and interacting with dynamic historical timelines.

You may give us the results of your evaluation in one of two ways:

(1) Written. Just perform the evaluation on your own time and write up the results. You may find the following items useful:

* A blank form for noting problems [PDF - 33kB].

* Print-ups of key screen displays, so that you can circle the locations of problems. [PDF - 48 kB - 8 pages].

(2) Verbal. If you would find it easier, Jonathan would be happy to take notes while you evaluate the site verbally. Just e-mail him to set up a time.

Before performing the heuristic evaluation, please familiarize yourself with Jakob Nielsen's ten Usability Heuristics. You may also use other lists of heuristics and your own knowledge of usability principles.

We would ask that you perform the evaluation independently. (If you are interested, we will make other evaluators' results available following the evaluation.)

Before beginning the evaluation, you may also wish to briefly familiarize yourself with the HumanSaga site.

Because it is only a prototype, not all portions of the interface are fully functional at this point:

At this point, the database only contains a sample of information about books, authors, and literary prizes. More information about more topics will come later.

All searching and browsing are fully functional.

The features on the left side of the front page ("Timeline of the Day" and "This Date in History") are non-functional; plus, the information is... well... unreliable.

The "Advanced Search" and "Merged Search" pages are not yet functional.

The interface for selecting more detailed geographic search terms is still in the design phase. The "More locations" link currently takes you to a mock-up page describing the future functionality.

The Help page has only "mumble text", with no real help. (Sorry!)

"Previous Timelines" are not yet functional. The system does not yet record the user's search history, and the display is a mock-up. As a result, both the links and the merge button are non-functional.

The "About HumanSaga", "Feedback", and "Contact" links from the home page are not yet functional (except the "Contact" link, which e-mails us).

As much as possible, please evaluate the graphic design, navigation, and architecture of the non-functional features, however. Thank you for bearing with us while the system is under construction!

Please go through the entire interface twice:

(1) The first time, evaluate the overall flow and structure.

(2) The second time, focus on individual dialogue elements.

Note that problems may be located in four different places:

• at a single location,
• at two or more locations which must be compared to find the problem
• in the overall structure of the interface, or
• elements which ought to be present but are missing.

After creating a list of heuristic problems, please rank each problem, 0-4:

• 0 = Not a problem
• 1 = Cosmetic problem only
• 2 = Minor usability problem
• 3 = Major usability problem
• 4 = Usability catastrpohe

The overall Heuristic Evaluation should only take one to two hours.

List of Heuristics

Go to HumanSaga
(use login: "test" and password: "thankyou!")

Thanks again!

- Jonathan Henke and David Chott