HeuristicEvaluation-DavidSqueri
From CS160: User Interface Design Sp12
The application I chose to evaluate is the Oracle Calendar application used by all employees at the company at which I work. The program is meant to keep track of schedules and coordinate meetings between staff.
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Visibility of System Status
Violation 1
When viewing the calendar a month at a time, the interface does not make it clear which day is currently "selected." The day corresponding to the current date is highlighted in yellow, but when selecting a day to create new evens the application uses a dull gray that blends in with overlapping weeks from other months. This can (and has) lead to confusion when a new event is created on the wrong day because it is unclear which date is selected.
Severity: 2 Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
Although persistent-there is no way to change the selection format, the impact from this issue is relatively small
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Violation 2
When a user is invited to attend a new meeting or event, they have the option of RSVP-ing yes or no. However, despite their answer, the event shows up on their calendar. This means that if I decline attending an event, it will still appear on my calendar with the only difference being a small red X next to it. For a user who is unaware of this "feature," it is very easy to assume this means a meeting they had been planning on attending had been cancelled, especially for events with the same name.
Severity: 4 Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released
This error is frequent-it happens with every meeting that will not be attended and depending the the situation the impact can be very bad if the user misses a meeting due to a misunderstanding with the program; the problem isn't so persistent but the user must first realize the meaning of the notation.
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Violation 3
This error violates both the "Visibility" and "Consistency and Standards" heuristics. When mousing over buttons in the UI, if the user pauses over one a small drop down window is displayed that gives a brief description of what that button's function is. However, there is also information displayed in the bottom corner of the screen about the same button that is either identical to the drop down message or different depending on the button selected. There is no consistent pattern as to which buttons yield more extensive descriptions. The design should instead simplify it to one message that contains all the necessary info. In addition though, if the user pauses over one button and then moves directly over another, the bottom message no longer gives a description of the new button, but instead reads "For Help, Press F1"
Severity: 3 Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority
This violation is frequent-occurs with all buttons and is persistent even when the user becomes aware of it, luckily the impact causes no damage, it simply makes it more difficult for new users to use and navigate the app.
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Recognition rather than Recall
The main purpose of this application is to coordinate meetings and events between company employees, and this often necessitates the ability to look at the public agendas for other employees. In order to do this, the user must remember different key combinations rather than using a menu or buttons to access the information. CTRL+O allows a user to search for and observe another user's calendar, while CTRL+G opens a menu that allows the user to compare the calendars of multiple people at once to find common availabilities. Without prior knowledge or having an experienced user explain the controls, a new user would have no way of learning these functions.
Severity: 4
Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released
This error is both frequent and persistent as it occurs every time one uses the program and consistently requires the user to remember random key combinations to perform vital tasks; although the error causes no direct damage, if user forgets a command they are unable to proceed without seeking help.
Consistency and Standards
When a new meeting is being created the user has the option of setting the "accessibility" of the event, meaning whether or not other users can see the event. The default value is "Normal," giving absolutely no description of what meeting will appear like for others. However experience will tell you that "Normal" meetings cannot be accessed or seen by other users. There are also "Personal" and "Confidential" levels that suggest they are more secret than the "Normal" level, but no explanation as to why. Finally there is the "Public" level that allows others to see your event but again comes with no description of its specific function.
The User Control and Freedom heuristic is also violated on this page, because if a meeting is created with an Accessibility level that the user didn't want, there's no way to alter the created meeting. It must be deleted and re-created from scratch.
Severity: 4 Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released
This problem is frequent-it occurs with the creation of every new meeting, persistent-even when a user is aware of the issue it is easy to forget and make a mistake, and causes the user to redo work if a mistake has been made.
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Match Between System and the Real World / Help Users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
In the applications File menu one is able to open agendas as a "Designate" but there is no description of what a designate is or does. Unless there is a term in the business world I'm unaware of, "designate" has no connection to the real world. In addition, when trying to run something as a designate a very unhelpful error window appears that gives no details or potential solutions to the problem.
Severity: 2 Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
The poor error windows are frequent-occur whenever there is an error and persistent-unless the user knows explicitly what they did wrong the windows never help.
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