Usability heuristics
Four Basic Task (in estimated order of happening)
- Unlock device
- Turn on wi-fi
- Change brightness
- End running
Nelsons heuristics
- Feedback response time; between pushing the power button and the screen showing feedback there is a small delay, this delay being about 20-40 milliseconds. The variation of this delay is altered depending on the amount of applications running and if its on start-up. Viability of user status; I believe the tablet is correct not showing a loading sequence during the delay, because this would in most probability increase the delay itself, and the delay is at the size where, the delay is only noticeable when its at the highest of its delay times variation. Aesthetic and minimalistic of design; once the lock screen has appeared, the lock screen is simple, as to start with there is only a circle with a padlock in the centre. Consistency and standards; By using the symbol of a padlock, the user will subconsciously recognize the meaning of locked, as the padlock in the picture is complete. When the user pressed the circle with their finger, a larger circle appears with a symbol of an open padlock, at this time a gentile wave dissipates towards the open padlock. The larger circle appearing around the smaller one, and the open padlock is complying with consistency. The wave gesturing towards the open padlock, and the logic that touching gives a response, is a very minimalistic way of providing instructions, this is also applied by; when the user experiments with touching the screen to unlock the tablet, if their finger moves by the open padlock, the circle has an attraction to the open padlock, to prevent the error of the user continuing to move their finger away from the open padlock incorrectly. From this experimenting, the user will discover that releasing their finger off the circle, as it is on the open padlock, will unlock the tablet. As the tablet is successfully unlocked the tablet makes a satisfying click to notify their task was successful. User freedom of control; the user may later discover that there are multiple options for unlocking the device, this makes for good user flexibility.
- The test for the following evaluation was completed after test one. Note: on the first boot the user is showed how to find and use simple tasks, including the location of the menu to turn the wi-fi on or off. When the user clicks the button to bring up the summirsed settings menu, sometimes the user will miss the button.( if they are in a rush ). The fact that windows also brings up more information when the clock is clicked, takes advantage of consistency standards; as the users are more likely to try something that has worked before with other electronic technology. Then after pressing the clock as shown in the first picture, the tablet responds with the menu shown in the second picture; but at this point if the user forgets the tablets self tutorial, there is no indication that this menu leads to change the wi-fi settings, as it doesn't relate to anything else the user may know already, apart from the use of the tablet of the device itself. But this half way menu complies with the minimalistic of design, to not over complicate use; as the user won't want to see the menu (as shown in the third picture) if they only want to see the date, battery percentage, or internet status. But because this task is to turn the wi-fi on, the user will proceed by pressing the status box to reveal the summarised setting control menu. Then to turn the wi-fi on the user slides the switch in the line with the word wi-fi and a symbol. The mix of the contrast of the slant trigger,and the resemblance of a traditional physical switch, increases users level of understanding and familiarity to turn the wi-on. As does the symbol that is internationally recognized as wireless transmission. But, the problem with the setup is that, if you touch within the line for wi-fi but not the switch, a more complex and detailed menu for wi-fi that takes over the whole screen, rather then the summarised menu that only covers the bottem corner of the screen.
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| 8/14/2012 |
My suggestions; I think there is room for improvement within the use of turnning on the tablets wi-fi, with the summarised menu. First of all, there is little suggestion of the summarised menu at the satus menu. There is a small icon that Android uses to represent settings, but to a user new to the tablet, they will not recognise it as; click this box again for settings. I think the icon should be something that is more universal, the current icon looks like the icon for a sound editing app. Instead, it could be in the theme of mechanical cogs or tools, as this is more likely to be recognised, also this could relate with the mechanical switch symbolization. I would also suggest that the status box includes a very gentle pulsating glow, to gesture to the user to click the box while also adding to the consistency of gestures, like the wave in the unlocking of the screen, this won't cause user irritation, as the pulsing would only last the short amount of time that it takes to read a date, or click to change settings.To increase the change of the user pressing the clock button; if they increased the size of the clock it would look out of place so they would have to increase the size of the tool bar, and that wouldn't be an efficient use of the screen. But, the developers could use a gesture like swiping upwards from the tool bar at any point, but this would be bad for new users, as they would forget the gesture more easierly compared with the thought, "its like with my computer at home". To avoid the annoyance of bringing up an unwanted menu when trying to slide the wi-fi switch, I would suggest increasing the size of the switch itself, this won't affect the heuristics as there is room for the switches to increase in size.
- To change the brightness of the tablets display the setting is in the same place as the wi-fi switch, so I don't need to re analyse the process of getting to the summarised settings again. The brightness slider is in the third photo. The fact that the method of adjusting the brightness is similar to a physical potentiominter slider applies consistency with the real world tools and symbols for interface control. The symbol of a sun is internationally used for brightness for most electronics, and as the sun is a light source, this makes for a good chance of the user recognizing the slider as a brightness controller.
- The first problem to ending tasks is finding the correct menu which is a matter of trial and error, if the user doesn't remember the system tutorial. But, if the user knows they can get to the menu from the home screen, they will be likely to discover the menu by association of the symbol. From knowing the areo stack function in windows, the user will get the idea the application icon is in relation to choosing and managing running applications, this is shown in the image below. Once the user clicks this button the running applications will pop up on one side of the screen. I find the representaion of the running applications to be highly effective; as this isn't only an icon but a screen shoot of the last time it was in use, and the text name too. The screen applies the heuristic recognition rather than recall, as the user will recognize the program as they last saw it, over the icon or name in most cases. But the multiple forms of representation in one, doesn't seem to have an affect on the over all minimalism of design. But a big problem for new users is that when your in the menu, its easy to assume you click on the picture to go to the app, but it isn't easy to fiuger out to end applications, you must slide them to the side. My Suggestions I think that once your in the task menu there should be some sign or gesture to indecate how to end a chosen application. One way this could be achieved is to add something like the slant on the switches for the summarised settings control, this would add to the consistency of the tablets interface and improve the ease of use. But this slant would have to be carefully designed so that it doesn't affect; the user recognising the screenshot, over complicate the menu or be to unsimilar to the settings switches.
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| The running applications menu |
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| The ending of an application |
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