An integrated method for evaluating interfaces
Heather L. McQuaid, David Bishop · 2001
To take advantage of the interdisciplinary experience of our colleagues, we decided several years ago to add heuristic evaluation to our expert analysis method. Although heuristic evaluation is a cost-effective method for evaluating interfaces, we found that the recommended prioritization strategy--ranking the problems according to severity--has several limitations. Specifically, it does not address how much it will cost the developers to fix the problems, nor does it adequately capture the distinction between high-level (global) and low-level (specific, screen-level) problems. To address these limitations, we developed a method which retains the richness of heuristic evaluation, but communicates the results in such a way that project managers, developers, and designers can form a clear and immediately executable plan for addressing the problems. Our method integrates user research, heuristic evaluation, affinity diagramming, cost-benefit charts, and recommendations into a report that others can use to plan both short and long-term improvements.