Lab session activity COMP1436

NIELSEN’S HEURISTICS
Nielsen’s heuristics (1995)
•Visibility of system status For more information:
•Match between system and the real world 10 Usability Heuristics for Use
r Interface Design (nngroup.co
•User control and freedom m)
•Consistency and standards
•Help users recognise, diagnose and recover from errors
•Error prevention
•Recognition rather than recall
•Flexibility and efficiency of use
•Aesthetic and minimalist design
•Help and documentation
Example Answers
(created by
students)
Group 1
Help users recognise, diagnose and
recover from errors

Clear message shown the error and "forget your password?" solution provided
Error prevention
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Flexibility and Efficiency of
Use

Clicking the "YouTube"  icon

takes you to the home page
which makes it flexible and
efficient for users 
Group 2
User control and freedom
- Undo Button

- Redo Button

- Cancel Button

- CRUD operations Buttons (Create, Read, Update, Delete)

- Save as Draft Button (for email)

- Skip Button
Consistency and standards​
- Submit Button

- Like Button (Facebook)

- Share Button (Facebook, Twitter)

- Subscribe Button (YouTube)

- Follow Button (Instagram)

- Search bar (any shopping page)

- Notification bar (any social media platform)

- View cart (any shopping page)

- Login and Register Buttons (any sites with accounts) 

 Help users recognise, diagnose and recover
from errors​

 Gmail provide help for user to choose valid password and avoid errors.
 Recognition rather than recall​

 Google search change the color of links that user already opened before. User
don’t need to recall or stare at links if user want to open link again.
Flexibility and efficiency of use​
Finding different way  or shortcuts of doing things more effective and efficient
for example

1. Type the same basic email over and over

2. Copy and paste the email text and edit the parts that you want to differ for
each recipient (such as their name)

3. Send a single email to a large group (using bcc)

4. Use a mail merge feature to separately address and send each email

5. Integrate your email with a more advanced tool that allows for programmatic
variables that pull information from a database into the email body
Help and Documentation
- Application Permissions tab (Android, iOS)

- iPhone User Guides (Found on Apple website)

- Requesting permissions to view data after a 3rd party login

- Help section at the end of a website page

- Help bar at the top of the page

- Contact support Button

Group 3
 Help and Documentation

Search
button for
help.

The Excel Sheet has a Help Menu which has a list of 'Recommended Topics'
which are well documented steps to provide the user with the various tasks
that they could carry out.
 Aesthetic and minimalist design

Pleasing aesthetics. No overwhelming

information. User just searches for the
information they need and that is what
is displayed to them.

Google is a beautiful example of great aesthetic and minimalist design. It has a lot of content hidden away
from the user. But the interaction with the user is such that  he/she can search for relevant information
without being bombarded with irrelevant data. The landing site has little but pertinent information for the
user to interact with. Aesthetically less stressful.
 Flexibility and efficiency

An example of flexibility and efficiency of use, would be the short cut menus provided in Microsoft
Word which would allow for the user to edit their work without clicking on the top Home menu.
 Recognition rather than recall

Recognition rather
than recall: Clear
headers to guide the user

Recall rather than

recognition: to pay fees,
you must recall where to
click
The University of Greenwich student portal is a good example of both recognitions rather than recall and
recall rather than recognition.  Recognition rather than recall – A student can see their Moodle page with
clear headers. Recall rather than recognition – If the student wants to pay fees, they will need to remember
to click on the "My learning" to find the link to pay the fees.
                    Error Prevention

The above image shows an example of an Error Prevention. An invalid Postcode has been entered
and a ' Hmm....can't find this address. Try again?' Message is displayed to prevent an error.
Group 4
Error Prevention
Mistakes - It is usual that the user may forget their usernames
and passwords which is needed to login into their account. So,
it is rectified by adding a 'Forgot Password' option to continue
further.

Constraints – Constraints provide a better way of creating an

error free design thereby reducing mistakes. Example: Typing
an email id without '@' symbol makes it invalid. Therefore, a
button can be enabled only when an '@' symbol is added in the
email id section of a form.

Slips – Typing errors are frequent when we search things

online. Adding suggestions into it could make the search
time efficient and complete the task.

Nibin Sebastian
 Recognition rather than recall

Here, the designer has kept

the recently viewed item in
the home screen and that
will remind the user about
her/his last searches and
items needed to buy. These
kinds of approaches would
help us to reduce the use
of the user’s memory.

Source: Akshay Devazya

Article
Shashmita Yash Patel
Help and documentation
Source: Apple.com

Apple provides both text and image

which help users better understand the
given information. There are different
sections for each category (e.g.
HomePod). This guides visitors to the
exact place they wanted.

Source: Currys

Currys gives visitors a good

understanding of their services.

Thi Nhung Nguyen

 AESTHETIC AND MINIMALIST
DESIGN
The content here are kept precisely essential to all users
who are visiting the page. The page is also made pleasant
to view.

Such users may be existing users wishing to log in,

exactly and all the details required to do so are concisely
requested.

Alternatively, such users may be first time users and

required to set up a user account, all that is needed for
this is just a click.

Cart can only be accessed after

Too many information log in. Hence not essential on
and contents, especially this page that precedes log in.
for a homepage.

Primary navigation such as

"login" tab is almost hidden.

Peter Onimisi Okovido

Flexibility and efficiency of
use

• Combining related but different functions on one screen  - efficiency.  

• Signing in or Creating Account will both need email address.
• Registering a device – link provided.
User given a choice to • Forgotten password – link provided.
manage cookies • Option to sign in using another service I.D by Sony (My Sony-
Community) - link provided. Source: Sony
Source: Debenhams But still no clutter on screen.
Maureen Mlambo