Heuristic Evaluation Task

Work in the project teams.
Each team has two roles: Client and Contractor

Phase 1 - Preparation (10 minutes)

In this phase, the teams are in the client role. As a client, each team...

• selects a software, an app, or a website to be evaluated by another team,
• defines a set of evaluation criteria (heuristics) for the evaluation of the product or service selected above,

(I recommend using 3 to 5 criteria for this exercise. You can use the Usability Heuristic from the Nielsen and Norman Group or a subset of them) https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

• provides a short explanation of the product and the evaluation criteria.

Please take notes and document everything on any (virtual) White-Board or other shareable document.

Phase 2 - Evaluation (45 minutes)

In this phase, the teams are in the contractor role. As a contractor, each team ...

• reads the explanations from the other team,
• creates a protocol sheet for the evaluation,
• each team member explores thoroughly the interface independently of each other, and
• compares the dialog elements with the heuristics using their expert knowledge, and
• collect the findings in the protocol sheet (Usability problem list)
• the team assesses the severity of the findings (individually or as a group),
• compiles an aggregated list of findings together with severity assessment,
• hands the findings back to the client.

Phase 3 - Feedback (10 minutes)

Back to the client role. As a client ...

• read the reported findings,
• give a short talk (5 minutes) about the most important needs for improvement.

The contractor will be asked to comment.