Cultural Screen  Project

Week 5

Here is the second version of the flash file, please right click on the link and save it in your disk:

Heuristic evaluation and appropriate changes

1. Background on the Main page distracts attention from menu items and the name of the application.

<Removed. Substituted for solid light background>                                                                   (Visibility)

2. Menu items on the Main page have rectangular shape. It provides grouping (like 3 on the top form one group, two vertical rectangles on the left and right form another group, and so on). Wrong assumptions.

<Shaped changed to the circle. Items organized in the oval group around the name label>          (Gestalts law)

3. Language bar should contain default language (English). Only flag which is currently in use should be highlighted. <British flag added. Highlighting implemented>                                                                         (Consistency)

4. Font should be the same everywhere.

<Font changed to the same one on every page>                                                                        (Consistency)

5. The color of letters should be solid – thus it is more visible and readable. Fancy effects just distract attention from the meaning of the word.

<Font color changed to solid on every page>                                                                            (Visibility)

6. Museums page: Up and Down arrows on the museums list page are “invisible”, and doesn’t provide direct information what is it for here.

<Up and Down buttons are changed in shape. The are located as a logical continuation of the list providing user to follow the list by pressing them>                                                                      (Visibility, Natural Mapping)

7. “Categories” button: “Categories” is considered to be unnatural and providing wrong assumptions where the button leads to.

<Changed to “Museums Types” button which has one meaning.                         (Speak User’s language)

8. Buttons should be clearly distinguished from the background. Feedback is missing when navigating on them. <Zooming is implemented when navigating to buttons. Moreover, the color changes to more intensive one when the mouse is navigated to the button>                                                                                        (Feedback)

9. Home button and Back button are located in quite unnatural places – on the right hand side of the user.

<Home and Back button are placed to the left hand side of the user, supporting intention to go back (like pages in the book). Back button is placed on the top providing mapping with computer toolbars>        (Natural Mapping)

10. Search page is empty and useless. It’s enough to have one search window on each page.

<Search page deleted. Search window is added to every page instead>      (Visibility, Minimize memory load)      

11. Top 10 window is changed to Today window which addresses the topic of museums more.

12. Control buttons (Home, Back, Museums types) are implemented in the same design. The same for image buttons (items with picture and Label).                                                                            (Minimize memory load)

Think Aloud and Design Changes

- Why Beethoven’s photo is on museums item?

<Museums picture changed to more addressing Museums topic one>.

- Background image on the Main page is considered distracting and not expressible.

<Removed and substituted to the one color background>.

- Events section is considered to be rare used. Better to include the music section instead – because almost all we wanted to include into Events section is actually about concerts, orchestra, and so on.

- Language bar with flags should be visually divided from the main field of the page.

- What is Categories button? Does it lead to the Main page with these items? Are they categories?

<Rename button to Museums Types, Restaurant Kinds>

- Font with gradient distracts attention from the meaning of the word.

<Changed to solid>

- Map: places should be numbered from top to bottom, and not mixed.

<Rearranged>

Special Heuristics

1. Search option.

User may want to start search from every page, and every state. This requirement is highly demanded by most of the users – both visitors and citizens of the city. The Search window is implemented for this purpose – it appears in the same place, in the same shape on every page.

2. Common color.

The application “Cultural Life of Bonn” has the common color hue through all its pages. This peach pink is pleasant to perceive, it is neither boring nor annoying. Common color helps to relate one page with the other.

3. Language bar.

User should have an opportunity to change the language being on every page. This feature is required for target users from abroad willing to familiarize their selves with the Culture of Bonn. So, language bar appears on every page in one and the same look and place.