LIBR 246: Questions for the 10 usability heuristics
10.26.99

The following questions are required (the number in parenthesis refers to the usability heuristic number):

(3) Did the website allow you to move about easily?
(3) Did you know how to start over?

(1) Did the web site tell you where you were at each step?
(1) Was the navigation bar clearly displayed [point out the navigation bar, if there is one]?

(6) Are the link names descriptive?
(6) Are the links names visible?
(6) When you selected a link, did you know where the link was taking you?

(8) Were the screens too busy?
(8) Did you find too much information on each screen?

(9) If you had a problem, were you able to figure out what was happening?

The following questions are optional:

(10) Were you able to find any help?

(2) When searching, were all the words familiar to you?
(2) Was the item easy to find?
(2) Did things make sense?

(5) Did you enter any information incorrectly as a result of poor or confusing design?

(4) Was the wording used concise?
(4) Was the wording used consistent?
(4) Is the color of the links consistent?
(4) Is the color of the navigation bars consistent?

(7) Could you bookmark this page?
(7) Shortcuts.

NOTE: All questions are designed for Y/N responses and the system evaluators should be instructed accordingly. However, feel free to record whatever response you feel is appropriate and to try to elicite from the evaluators detail beyond the Y/N response.

Usability Tasks:

All system evaluators will be asked to perform the following tasks:

1. Known item search: Find the book titled Life on the Mississippi.

2. Subject search: Find items on the topic "racism in the United States."

3. Specific item search: Find a newspaper article on librarians.

4. Fact search: Find the library hours of operation for Christmas.

Notes:

The most important point to remember is that you are working with the system evaluator as a team; that is, you should be in constant dialogue with the evaluator. Coaching, prompting, explaining are all allowed. The point is that you are actively looking for problems and the heuristics are your general guidelines.

When you ask the questions, you may choose to rephrase or elaborate on the question. But please remember to ask the original question first. Let's see how well our original wording works.

At this point, we are not testing the search tools (e.g., the online catalog or databases) but rather we are testing the usability of the library's website to get users to the appropriate tool for searching. Users may be allowed or encouraged to actually try to find the item identified in the task, but the success or failure of the search has no bearing on the usability of the library's website.

Be sure to take notes, however brief, during your evaluation sessions. Memory is a notoriously bad device for remembering things. Notes are generally more reliable. The simplest notetaking device would be a copy of the questions and task list, with notes attached to the appropriate item.