Extending the Heuristic Evaluation Method through Contextualisation

Abstract

This paper proposes an extension to the heuristic evaluation framework to help overcome some of its limitations. We describe the addition of a contextualised layer, called the ‘usability problems profile’, to improve the reliability of the method's findings. We present the results of an experiment showing that evaluators - even novices - can produce more consistent and reliable evaluation results through adding a contextualised layer to the heuristic evaluation method. This extended method we call HE-Plus. in the experiment discussed, ten novice evaluators assessed a web site's usability. Five were using heuristic evaluation and five HE-Plus. The group that used the HE-Plus method spent less time in evaluation, found more usability problems, and found more overlapping problems than the group that used the original heuristic evaluation method. An in-depth ‘usability problems profile’ for the web site was derived from analysing the experimental data. The implications of this improved profile are discussed.