Heuristic Evaluation Evaluation

706.021 Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation 3VU SS 2010

Gruppe 3-09

Gerwald Tschinkel
Luis Dean Kals
Rene Langgartner

Heuristic Evaluation of Website

http://www.mediamarkt.at

Report of 23 Apr 2010

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Product and Goals

This report documents a heuristic evaluation of http://www.mediamarkt.at, the website of a local market for electric appliances. The goals of this heuristic evaluation were to evaluate the usability of the website using a set of heuristics and establish a prioritized list of issues for the developers' attention. The findings along with the suggestions will guide future changes in the software's interface.

1.2 Methods

Reseachers utilized "Andrews General Usability Heuristics". Each team member independently performed tasks multiple times, recorded usability issues and which heuristic violations occurred and then rated each issue in terms of severity. Researchers later consolidated and prioritized usability issues according to severity.

1.3 Findings

This evaluation identified 26 usability issues in total. We described 5 usability issues in detail and proposed solutions for each of them in the report. The following are the most severe issues outlined in the report:

1. Sorting Problems:
It is impossible to sort items based on the price, which is a standard feature in most online stores.


2. Webcode:
No real description on how to reach or recieve a webcode, yet it is listed on every link featuring a product (and some other subsites).Couldn't find a webcode for various products, couldn't find one at all. It says it navigates to a specific MediaMarkt website however, we've never noticed a webcode and based on the facts its primarily under products, we guess its meant to help with product search. However no product lists one in any findable way.


3. Inconsistent naming "Wunschliste" and "Einkaufsliste":
After adding a product to your wishlist, it gets directly placed into the shopping list.


4. Registering confirmation email:
Registering a user account doesn't send the confirmation email in reasonable time and already logged in, but without confirming the registration email, the costumer cannot do anything.


5. Search does not find specific existing page:
There is a Service called "Küchengeräte Einbaucheck". If you type this exact string into the search, you will find a lot of "Küchengeräte", but not the specific page.

2 Introduction

Reseachers utilized "Andrews General Usability Heuristics", which is based on Nielsen's ten usability heuristics to evaluate the website. The ten heuristics can be seen in table  1.

1. Individual work:
Each team member independently performed tasks multiple times, recorded usability issues and which heuristic violations occurred, they rated each issue in terms of severity.


2. Work in group:
Later, the researchers discussed their independent findings. Afterwards they consolidated and prioritized usability issues according to severity.

2.1 User Profiles

1. Product Surfers
• Users that want to get informed about a product (read reviews, etc)
• Users that just want to "browse" through the page / through the products
2. Online Customers
• Users that want to shop online
3. Potential Employees
4. Potential Store Customers
• Users that just want to get informed about, how to get to the store, when they have opened, etc.
• Users that wants to know about the current "special offers"
• users that are looking for a specific type of product (eg what laptops do they offer, ...)
• Users that are looking for a specific product, for availability / cheapest price

2.2 Extent of Evaluation

The reseachers analysed the parts of the User Interface which are accessible for a common visitor of the website and which she/he uses during her/his visit. The researchers did not check for failures in the sourcecode or anything of the like. The main exercise was to simulate all types of visitors (see 2.1) and how these types use the website, trying to detect as many failures/problems as possible. The goals of this heuristic evaluation were to evaluate the usability of the website using a set of heuristic and disclose a prioritized list of issues to developer's attention. The findings along with the suggestions will guide future changes in the software's interface.

3 Evaluation Environment

The hardware and software configurations are listed in Table 2.

4 Positive Impressions

4.1 Professional Photos of Products

The appearance of the products is very professional with good highlighting as can be seen from the figure 1.

Figure 1: Professional Photos (here a notebook)

The researchers also gave positive comments for the good overview on the searching process. Also the visible state of actuality is very positive. These impressions were highlighted with red circles in figure 1.

4.2 Category Kontakt

All the needed information is listed (Store Opening Date; Address and Owner; etc.). A Telephone, Fax and Email address are listed. A feedback form is also included for questions. It also includes a functional google-earth map that shows the location.  2

Figure 2: Category Kontakt

4.3 Das Interessiert Andere Kunden

When looking for a specific range of products, it lists the products in the same category that others were looking for. The font dictating how often the product was searched/how popular. In Figure  3 "Das Interessiert Andere Kunden" is highlighted with a red circle.

Figure 3: Das Interessiert Andere Kunden

The researchers also mentioned the fast loading speed.

5 Analysis of Main Problems

The 5 most severe problems from the helist are described in the following chapter.

5.1 Sorting Problems

It is impossible to sort items based on the price, which is a standard feature in most online stores.  4

Figure 4: Sorting Problems

5.2 Webcode

There is no real description on how to reach or recieve a webcode, yet it is listed on every link featuring a product (and some other subsites). The researchers couldn't find a webcode for various products, couldn't find one at all. It says it navigates to a specific MediaMarkt website however, we've never noticed a webcode and based on the facts its primarily under products, we guess its meant to help with product search. However no product lists one in any findable way.  5

Figure 5: Problems with the webcode

5.3 Inconsistent naming "Wunschliste" and "Einkaufsliste"

After adding a product to your wishlist, it gets directly placed into the shopping list. 6

Figure 6: After adding a product to your wishlist, the shopping list appears from nowhere.

The shopping list is highlighted with a red circle.

5.4 Registering Confirmation Email

Registering a user account doesn't send the confirmation email in reasonable time and already logged in, but without confirming the registration email, the costumer cannot do anything. 7

Figure 7: Here is the confirmation message on the website, but the email is not sent.

5.5 Specific Existing Page is not found

There is a Service called "Küchengeräte Einbaucheck". If you type exactly this string in the search, you will find a lot of "Küchengeräte", but not the specific page. 8

Figure 8: Specific page not found

6 List of All Found Problems

Appendix A: Heuristics Used by the Evaluators

The evaluators used the set of heuristics found here heuristiken.pdf . In the hardcopy, you will find a printout of the heuristics.

Appendix B: Individual Evaluation Logs

The raw, individual evaluation logs of each evaluator. The hardcopy includes printouts of each of the evaluator logs.

Appendix C: Spreadsheet

The filled-in spreadsheet (heliste.xls) of all problems including severity ratings.

The hardcopy includes a printout of the spreadsheet.

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