RIT Podium

Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang

Heuristics Evaluation of RIT Podium

About the system
The product we are evaluating is the software with a designed GUI running on a control panel
which is used for controlling the media source to the two projectors in the classroom. The
control panel and the two projectors as well as other media source such as cameras or
computer devices constitutes a intelligence teaching aid system, this system deployed in a
specific classroom is used for assisting the instructors to lecture and present their course
materials to the classroom in an easier and more efficient way.
The system is located at RIT LOW building Max Lowenthal Hall. The control panel program is
running on a Linux based tablet like computer.

Guidelines for the Heuristic Evaluation

The 10 Usability Characteristics of Jakob Nielsen, and also use Donald Normans
Characteristics are referred for guidelines.
Visibility of system status

The system status should be visible to the

user and with feedback in a reasonable time

Match between system and real world

The system language, words, phrases and

concepts should match the real world
conventions

User control and freedom

Support undo and redo

Consistency and standards

Internally consistent
conventions

Error prevention

Prevent the user from performing erroneous

actions, proper error-checking

Recognition rather than recall

Less cognitive load on the user, by having all

the knowledge in the world rather than forcing
the user to have the knowledge of the system
in their head

Flexibility and efficiency of use

The system should cater to both novice and

experienced users

Aesthetic and minimalist design

There should be no extra or irrelevant

information

with

the

platform

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover Error messages should be in plain
from errors
languages(no codes), and also provide a
constructive solution to recover from the
errors

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Help and documentation

Any information related to helping the user

with the usage of the system should be easily
available to the user.

Reference:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

Rating scale
0 = No usability issues were discovered
1 = Cosmetic usability problem: Minor enhancement is required
2 = Moderate usability problem: Attention is required, possibly a lower priority task
3 = Severe usability problem: Significant attention is required
4 = Showstopper/Catastrophic usability problem: Immediate attention is required

Heuristic Evaluation
Start page

Function Description:
After power on the system. This is the first UI which shown to the user. The
button located in the center is for entering the main page. The Audio Control button at
the bottom right corner, after pressed will pop up a menu above the button for volume
adjust.
Problem Description:
The Close button in the audio control panel is blue instead of red.
However in the rest of the screens the color of the Close button is always red.
The location of the Close button in the menu was not in the place people get
used to. In addition, this page seems useless.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Heuristic Guideline 1: Consistency and standards
Explanation: All the buttons that used for Close should look consistency and
follow platform conventions.
Heuristic Guideline 2: Aesthetic and minimalist design
Explanation: Dialogues should not contain information which is rarely needed.
Since enter the home page is the only option to this page, the system could go to
the home page directly without this page.
Suggestion: The text color or button background color can be made consistent
among the different screens. The location of the Close button can be put at the
top corner of the menu that consistency with the usual custom. If necessary, just
delete this page.
Severity rating: 1

Room mode Page

Function Description:
There are two modes - Individual mode and Presentation mode. Individual
mode means that two screens can display two different input sources. Presentation
mode means two screen will present the input from the same source.
Problem Description 1:
There is no provision to go back to the start page. The whole screen was
only used for display the two buttons, the affordance of the two button is not well
provided.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Heuristic Guideline 1: User control and freedom
Explanation: This does not provide enough control and freedom to the user to
navigate through the system. After entering the page, there is no option to go
back if the user want to cancel the selection.
Heuristic Guideline 2: Norman's Design Principles of Affordance
Explanation: The whole screen only afford very small area for touch. A bigger
area will provide better user experience when there is only two options in the
whole screen.
Suggestion: A back button linking to the start page could be added. Replace the
two buttons with bigger ones and with big icons on it.
Severity rating: 3
Problem Description 2:
The phrase presentation mode and individual mode not help user map
the icon to their function
Heuristic Guideline: Match between system and the real world
Explanation: The phrase of presentation mode is not clearly present that both
two screens will present the same input source. It even did not indicate that the
mode is related to screen.
Suggestion: The phrase in the icon could be changed to more close to the
execution or consequence, not the purpose.

Presentation Mode
1.

Left panel (Display, Room Control)

1.1.
Display
Function Description:
The display section of the right panel holds the on, off and mute functionalities.
These functions are mapped to the display.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang

Problem Description 1:
When you click the Off button in Display section, the status of the
transition is not clearly visible to the user. The On button is still enabled when
actually the system is changing to off state.
Heuristic Guideline: Norman's Design Principles - Visibility of the system status
Explanation: The user does not provided any feedback within a reasonable time
to notify about the status of the system.
Suggestion: A feedback to indicate the system transition and requesting the user
to wait will help alleviate this usability issue.
Severity Rating: 3
Problem Description 2:
The Mute button under the Display section turns off both the displays in
presentation mode and Display 1 in individual mode.
Heuristic Guideline: Match between system and real world, Consistency and
standards, Aesthetic and minimalist design.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Explanation: The functionality of the Mute button is neither externally consistent
nor internally consistent, and it appears to be redundant with regards to the Mute
in Volume panel.
Suggestion: The button can be possibly removed if there are no other intended
functionalities for it.
Severity Rating: 3

1.2.

Screen Control Panel

Function Description:
The screen control panel provides the controls of the roll up and roll down

for the two projector screens in the classroom.

Problem Description 1:

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
In the case we selecting the Display 1, and also based on the
description on the Screen Control menu, the control suppose only has
the controls for Screen 1, but the two projector screens will be moved.

Heuristic Guideline: Match between the system and the real world,
visibility of system status

Explanation: The text used in the screen control does not match with the
real world concept of two different controls for the two screens. The user
didnt know in which case the button controls which side of the screen or
both side of the screen. When lack the system visibility the status of the
machine will not match the instructions form the user.

Suggestion: Two different controllers for the two different screens, and in
the case of the machine execute one operation, block the operation from
the user.

Severity Rating: 4
Problem Description 2:
The Stop button in Screen control momentarily stops the screen
movement and then continues to bring the screen down. The Stop button
on Screen control, in addition to performing a temporary stop, also
reverses the screen movement.

Heuristic Guideline: Consistency and standards

Explanation: The action of Stop button is not consistent with what the
name suggests.

Suggestion: The Stop button could be programmed to just stop the

screen movement.

Severity Rating: 3

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
2.

Right Panel (Volume, Camera Control, Audio Control)

2.1.

Audio Control panel

Function Description:
This panel provides the functions to control the different audio input and
output of the system.
Problem Description 1:
The panel texts does not support easy mapping to its intended
function. In the audio panel, there are three lists Mic, Program, Main.
The program and main are vague for user as to what part of the audio this
panel relates to.
Heuristic Guideline: Match between system and the real world.
Explanation: The panel texts are more system-oriented than in the
language of a typical user.
Suggestion: Change the texts to more user-friendly language or add
some help text.
Severity Rating: 1
Problem Description 2:

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
The Volume up and down arrows are active even when the Mute
button was selected. The states of the Mute button does not seem to
override the functionality of the Mic, Program and Main controls in the
Audio Control option.

Heuristic Guideline: Error prevention

Explanation: The Mute function does prevent the user from changing the
volume controls.

Suggestion: Prevent the user from changing the volume controls when
the mute was selected. If the user want to change the volume, they need
to press the mute button again to release the state of mute first.

Severity Rating: 2

2.2.

Volume
Function Description:
The Volume control panel controls the system audio output.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Problem Description 1:
The Volume up and down arrows are active even when the Mute
button was selected. The state of the Mute button does not seem to
override the functionality of the up and down arrays.

Heuristic Guideline: Error prevention

Explanation: The Mute function does prevent the user from changing the
volume controls.

Suggestion: Prevent the user from changing the volume controls when
the mute was selected.

Severity Rating: 2
3.

Top Panel (Screen Panel, Input Device Panel)

3.1.

Input Device Panel

Function Description:

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
The input device panel allows the user to select different types sources
as the input to the control projector.
Problem Description 1:
In the figure shown above, most icons of the input sources is
related to the real world - VGA, HDMI, Blu-ray, PC, composite video.
However, the icon of Doc Cam is not mapping to the real world. The Doc
Camera is affixed to the ceiling above the podium to display the physcial
academic materials used by the instructors. But, this icon looks similar to
a camera attached to the table.
Heuristic Guideline: Match between system and the real world
Explanation: The icon does not match the real world equivalent of the
same function.
Suggestion: The icon can be modified to resemble its real world
counterpart more closely.
Severity Rating: 1
4.

Central control panel

4.1.

Document Camera Panel

Function Description:
The Document Camera panel provides controls for zooming, focusing
the document camera and its resolution.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Problem Description 1:
The options for different Inputs under Doc Cam source control
appear to be extra piece of information from a first-time users
perspective.
Heuristic Guideline: Aesthetic and Minimalist design
Explanation: The extra information appear to be irrelevant because most
of them do not exhibit any visible outcome on the system.
Suggestion: The extra options and controls could be removed.
Severity Rating: 1
Problem Description 2:
The signifier on the interface such as Freeze and Iris does not provide
meaningful information to the first-time user.
Heuristic Guideline: Match between system and the real world.
Explanation: The panel texts are more system-oriented than in the
language of a typical user.
Suggestion: Change the texts to more user-friendly language or add
some help text.
Severity Rating: 1

4.2.

Cameral Control Panel

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang

Function Description:
The camera control panel provides controls for the class recording
camera located at the back of the classroom.
Problem Description:
When the system is turned off, the camera (if powered on) will not
powered off. The user has to remember the camera state from his
previous operation or if the user clicks on the Camera control button, and
turn off the camera if not required.
Heuristic Guideline: Recognition rather than recall
Explanation: The user is loaded with the task of remembering the state of
the camera.
Suggestion: The camera can be turned off automatically when the system
is shut down.
Severity Rating: 2

4.3.

Miscellaneous
Problem Description 1:
When the user selects one of the device input, the central panel
will show that the particular input source was selected. However, when
the user connects the device to the system, it does not give any feedback
about the status of the connected input device.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Heuristic Guideline: Visibility of system status
Explanation: The status of the input device is not immediately visible to
the user from the system.
Suggestion: A feedback message about the connection status can be
displayed to the user.
Severity Rating: 2

Problem Description 2
When the user chooses Doc Cam as an input device, the central
panel will show the controller for document camera, such as adjusting the
focus and zoom in. However, when the users select PC as input device,
the central panel shows the controller for camera. This means the central
panel is not consistent with respect to the device which is currently
selected.
Heuristic Guideline: Consistency and standards
Explanation: The selected input device does not consistently refer to be
manipulated target of the control panel.
Suggestion: Since the system has the button Camera Control already,
the central panel can show the controller for PC, when PC is selected as
input device.
Severity Rating: 2

Problem Description 3
If the user forgets that he/she pressed the Off button to turn off
the display earlier and then tries to project his laptop over the display,
he/she might fail to achieve it.
Heuristic Guideline: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from
errors
Explanation: The signifier on the central panel only indicates which input
is selected, but wont give any information to the user to diagnose the
error.

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
Suggestion: If the central panel could give more information such as
whether the device is connected or the projectors working status, the
user is more likely to recover from their errors instead of giving up.
Severity Rating: 2
5.

Bottom Panel (Help, Room Mode, System Off)

5.1.

Help page
Function Description:
The help button provides the user with the information on how to acquire

more support and assistance related to the system.

Problem Description 1:
The Help button is visible to the user on the screen. However,
when the user clicks the button, a dialog box pops up and shows For
assistance, please call the help desk at: XXXXXXX. The most important
information is missing here.
Heuristic Guideline: Help and Documentation
Explanation: The information on how to get more help is not concrete.
Suggestion: More complete information can be provided
Severity Rating: 2

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang

5.2 System Off

Function Description:
The System Off button is for shutting down the system. The options in the
dialog box that pops up after you click System off button are Power down and
Cancel.

Problem Description 1:
The text Power Down is redundant when the user knows that he/she is
going to power down the system.
Heuristic Guideline: Aesthetic and minimalist design
Explanation: The text Power Down is an extra information for a
redundant measure.
Suggestion: Change the text Power Down to Ok. This will be inline
with the other button Cancel.
Severity Rating: 1

Individual mode
Miscellaneous
Problem Description 1:

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang
In Individual mode, when we switch from Display1 to Display 2,
the highlight over the current source selected goes off in Display 1 if we
select a source in Display 2 and switch back to Display 1.
Heuristic Guideline: Recognition rather than recall, Visibility of system
status
Explanation: The user is cognitively loaded to remember the source which
he/she selected in each of the displays.
Suggestion: The highlight on the sources for each display can be
retained.
Severity Rating: 1

Problem Description 2:
In Individual mode, the Camera control button is not functional
from Display 2 whereas it is functional from Display 1.
Heuristic Guideline: Consistency and Standards
Explanation: The function is not consistent among the different display
panels.
Suggestion: The camera control can be made functional from Display 2
too.
Severity Rating: 1
Problem Description 3:
In the Individual mode, the On/Off options under the Display
section controls only the Display 1 source and not that of Display 2.
Heuristic Guideline: Consistency and Standards
Explanation: The function is not consistent among the different display
panels.
Suggestion: The on/off can be made to control the display 2 too.
Severity Rating: 1

RIT Podium
Heuristic Evaluation
Goudam Muralitharan - Yi Huang - Ziyan Huang

Conclusion:
Some of the buttons in the user interface need more consistent design. Some functions
provide by the interface is not in the logical order. The error messages and help document
are not fully provided. Some parts fail to present the main state of the system. Majority of
the system functionalities offer control and freedom to the user.
Further usability tests can be conducted by involving the primary users of the system. This
will give more insight into the users perspective since it provides better feedback about how
real users use the system.