Description

In this assignment you will use the frameworks presented in the first two lectures (user experience goals, usability goals, heuristics and design principles) to critically analyse ONE user interface. You will also answer questions that will provide a good introduction to the next few lectures and help you to better understand the presented concepts.

This document is for both undergraduate students enrolled in COMP3511 and postgraduate students enrolled in COMP9511.

Assessment

Please ensure you read the following carefully, as there is important information regarding how you are to submit the assignment.

• The assignment constitutes 15% of your final assessment.
• This assignment is to be completed individually.
• A late penalty of 10% will be deducted per day (or part thereof) late. Assignments more than 5 days late will not be marked. Assignments submitted after 10pm on the due date will be marked as late.

User Interface Critique

In designing a user interface, the best approach is to perform an iterative review and refinement based on feedback from your users. This model is applied through all the stages of development. Before you start the process of designing an interface, however, it is important to know what characteristics or principles a website should adhere to. It is important to be able to critique what makes a website good or bad, without simply stating that you do or do not like it. The critique should allude to formal user interface principles and theories and should not just be based on your own ideas. The process of providing a critique involves not just stating negative aspects of the interface, but also the good. The point of critiquing is to provide fixes or improvements to the problems encountered, using formal principles and methods. In the first COMP3511/COMP9511 Assignment, you are expected to learn how to critique a user interface.

 

Read Chapter 1 of the textbook Interaction Design (Sharp et.al, 2019). This will help you to review the concepts that are required for completing a critique, such as Design Principles, User Experience Goals, Usability Goals, and Heuristics. You will be expected to use all four of these categories in your analysis of each website.

• For Design Principles: Section 1.7.3 (p26-32) in Interaction Design (Sharp, et. al 2019). Also, further details in Chapter 1 (Norman, 1998)
• For Use Experience Goals: Table 1.1 (p22) in Interaction Design (Sharp et. al, 2019). More information on User experience goals, Section 1.7.2 (p22-

26) in Interaction Design (Sharp et. al, 2019)

• For Usability Goals: Section 1.7.1 (p19-22) in Interaction Design (Sharp et. al, 2019)
• For Heuristics: section 16.2.1 (p550-560) in Interaction Design (Sharp et.

al, 2019)

 

The following presents a list of steps that you need to follow to complete the assignment. Please set out your work clearly in a report-based format. Use the steps below as headings within your report.

 

1. “INTERFACE”

Australia is currently experiencing the wort bushfire season we have ever seen. The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), and volunteers have been battling blazes without break through terrible conditions. The NSW RFS is the agency responsible for tirelessly fighting bushfires in NSW and are widely acknowledged as the largest volunteer fire service in the world.

 

In this assignment, we will be analyzing the RFS website (please use the desktop version, not on a mobile of this site):

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au

 

Please also note the Fires Near Me section of the website.

Under this heading in your assignment, clearly state three goals of this website. What purpose does the website have to serve?

 

2. “USERS” Who do you think would use this website? Give examples of FIVE different types of people that would use this website. Try to come up with different types of people (who may have differing needs – are they primary, secondary or tertiary stakeholders?)! Give a short description of each of these stakeholders.

 

3. “TASKS” Choose TWO users from your list above, and analyse what is each of those people trying to accomplish when they use this website? For each one of the two people that you identified above, please describe a function or task that they are trying to achieve when they use the site. Try and choose tasks that differ to give the most possible overview of your chosen interface.

 

Under this heading, provide a short justification of why you selected the TWO users in particular.

 

4. “ISSUES TABLE” Using your two chosen tasks, you are now ready to conduct a walkthrough of the website. In this step, you will complete each of your chosen tasks (keep in mind what user the certain task relates to and what their goals are). As you attempt to complete each task, ‘walkthrough’, note down any issues you are having or any positive aspects of the interface that you see in an issues table (Your critique is based on Design Principles, User Experience Goals, Usability Goals and Heuristics found in Appendix A; for your issues table, please use Appendix B – a template provided for you to record the issues). In your issues table, you may not be able to find examples of every attribute or principle and multiple criteria may apply to the same aspect of the interface. Try and uncover as many issues as possible in your issues table. Number each of the issues that you discovered in your walkthrough. The issues table will then consist of an Issue Number, Description of Issue, Heuristic/Design Principle etc. that applies to this issue, Positive/Negative and a severity rating of each issue. Try and include a screenshot or sketch of the issue in the table (this may not always be possible to do). You should annotate your screenshots/sketches to make it clear where the issue presents itself. The issues table and its use will be discussed in more detail in class in Week 1.

 

5. “CRITIQUE” Under your critique heading, you should choose EIGHT issues from your issues table and IN DETAIL provide a critique of the issues and possible solutions or improvements that can be made. This means that your issues table should have more than eight issues, but your analysis section of the report will have a detailed analysis of eight issues. You should also take sketches/screenshots and point out specific features on the sketches by annotating the sketches. We strongly encourage you to take regular screenshots as the websites are live and can change without notice. –      You must use all four categories in the critique: namely Design Principles, User Experience Goals, Usability Goals and Heuristics. Please use the actual terminology from the principles. You should also define the principles the first time you use them (make sure to reference where you got the definition from. HINT: Read the textbook).
   • You must consider both positive and negative observations.
   • State which aspect of the user interface is a representative example of each principle. For instance, you would note alongside your sketch/annotated screenshots that “the arrangement of buttons provides a poor mapping because…”. Please note that stating “the arrangement of buttons provides a poor mapping…” is not a sufficient response, and you must be able to justify each of your points.

 

6. “ACCESSIBILITY” In your walkthrough, did you encounter any issues that impact the accessibility of the interface? Please describe these issues in about half a page. Please make sure that you consider at least two potential disabilities in your discussion and more than one issue.

 

There is a NINE-page limit to this assignment. Please do not exceed the nine-page limit. The following should be used as a guide for structuring your report:

 

1. Title Page, stating title of your assignment, your name, student number and the name of your tutor – THIS IS NOT INCLUDED IN YOUR PAGE LIMIT
2. INTERFACE (0.5 page)
3. USERS (1 paragraph, up to 0.25 page)
4. TASKS related to TWO of the above users and justification of why you chose each of the above users/tasks (0.5 page)
5. ISSUES TABLE
6. CRITIQUE (including annotated sketches) (7 pages)
7. Accessibility Issues and Observations (0.5 page)
8. References – Your references can either be part of your 9-page limit, or can be included outside of this in the Appendices

 

Note to the above: The number of pages above are guidelines and suggested maximums for each section. You do not need to fill the suggested space. The maximum for the report is 9 pages in total, please note that the title page does not contribute to this page limit.

Formatting

Please read the following carefully, as there are marks for your formatting and presentation.

• The report should be presented in an A4 document.
• 12-point font should be used for the main body of text.
• The report, excluding the cover pages and appendix, must be a maximum of 9 pages.
• Consider including the following: (HINT: Use this as a checklist)
  • Page numbers
  • Headers/Footers on each page
  • Consistent font sizes (e.g. Use the same font size for all headings) o Line spacing o Correct use of paragraphs
  • Use of the spell checker and grammar checker
  • Correct use of professional referencing techniques in both the body of the

text as well as including a full list of references at the end. For more details about how to reference within a report, please use the following resource:  https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing

• Include your personal details such as name, student number, tutorial time, and tutor on the title page.

It is our experience that many CSE students who study HCI go on to work in design and UI work, where reporting is highly regarded. You must take pride in your reports and make them presentable. They are easy marks you cannot afford to lose.

 

 

Learning Outcomes

1. User Interface Critique

 

• Be able to define the user experience goals, usability goals, heuristics and design principles.
• Apply your understanding of the user experience goals, usability goals, heuristics and design principles to formally evaluate a user interface.
• Identify both positive and negative aspects of design.
• Understand how the design of a system is influenced by the intended audience.
• Consider accessibility issues.
• To understand the practical issues of real-world interface design and evaluation.

Understand the role of an issues table in collating and describing issues