Heuristic Evaluation of Team 1’s Project:

By Lazlo Ring – lring@ccs.neu.edu

Nielsen’s Heuristics

1. Simple and Natural Dialogue:

a. Both screens are free of extraneous graphics.

Severity: NA.

2. Speak the User’s Language:

a. All terms in the system are appropriate for the target age group.

Severity: NA.

3. Minimize User Memory Load:

a. The user is required to currently remember what color they have selected.

Severity: Major.

4. Consistency

a. The system has a consistent look and feel.

Severity: NA.

5. Feedback

a. The system does not give feedback when you hold down your mouse on the main screen until the butterfly moves.

Severity: Major.

6. Clearly Marked Exits

a. The Go Back to The Garden button is never explained in the tutorial.

Severity: Minor.

7. Shortcuts

a. There does not seem to be any shortcuts in the system.

Severity: NA.

8. Good Error Messages

a. You cannot seem to get into a state that allows for an error to occur.

Severity: NA.

9. Prevent Errors:

a. No word filter on the name of the butterflies, could lead to problems depending on how the names are used.

Severity: Major.

b. Front screen instructions can appear under the butterflies.

Severity: Minor.

c. It may be hard to tell which parts of the butterfly you can paint on a touch screen. (I.E. which part I’m about to paint on when clicking on the fourth butterfly)

Severity: Major.

10. Help and Documentation:

a. The system provides help upon staying idle on every screen.

Severity: NA.

b. Instructions for the butterfly only appear after waiting idly on the create page instead of upon first viewing it.

Severity: Minor.

c. When the tutorial for create a butterfly is going, the “Next, pick a part…” instruction temporarily hides what you are currently working on.

Severity: Major.

Additional Comments:

1. You cannot adjust the size of the butterfly to complete task 3.

Severity: Catastrophic.

2. Tasks 4 and 5 are not implemented.

Severity: Catastrophic.