Cd-rom evaluations

Yesterday we evaluated some cd-roms and dvds. This was a good exercise at using the 10 Jakob Nielson's Heuristics to evaluate each one.

The 10 Heuristics are:
Match between system and the real world -
Looking out for how well the design, words and icons are similar to what a user would be familiar with in the real world i.e. no jargon.
Visibility of system status -
Is there any indication e.g. on a flash site of the percentage download, or feedback to tell the user where and what is happening on a site - such as buttons lighting up with the mouse rolls-over.
User control and freedom -
How well the site is structured with navigation - i.e. is it easy for the user to go forwards and backwards in one step, and also get back to the main menu.
Error prevention -
Have there been steps taken to prevent errors from happening and give warnings to users to stop them doing something that will cause an error.
Recognition rather than recall -
Does a site/cd rom etc have a simple and consistent way of navigating around it and methods, so that the user quickly recognises and remembers what to do , or is it more complex and they will have re-read and understand what to do.
Aesthetic and minimalist design -
The site should have a good looking and minimalist design, with relevant words because every word that isn't relevant will compete with the ones that do.
Flexibility and efficiency of use -
This includes looking for accelerators - things that help the advanced user to skip steps and e.g. get back to home by clicking on an icon.
Helps users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors -
Error messages that have no codes and help the user in plain language to understand and recover from the error.
Help and documentation -
If needed, it should be clear, easy to follow and the file not too large.
Consistency and Standards -
Navigation, fonts, colours, buttons, and symbols should mean the same thing throughout the site/cd-rom or dvd.

We tested 5 different packages -
Go for Gold (an interactive cd-rom with games and learning related to the Manchester 2000 Commonwealth Games). This wasn't very good as it had horrible graphics developed with Director, the games weren't very engaging and the layout was confusing.
Music dvd - this was a clean, great graphics layout, with aesthetic design. The navigation was good, and its only flaw was some of the font sizes were abit small.
Being John Malkovich dvd - The design of the menu was good, drawing themes from the film. However, the information icon lead to a link that wasn't very helpful as it just described what all the different icons meant, which we later discovered wasn't constistently used throughout the links. Also, there was little in the way of accelerators and the chapter selection was limited as you have to use the arrows.
Learning Italian cd-rom - this wasn't great as the first cd didn't work at all on the pc. The kids version did, and some of the games were effective learning tools, but there wasn't much feedback on the buttons, and the layout was abit confusing.
Eye Toy PS2 game - this was an excellent game. Once we had grasped the navigation around the menus using the camera almost 'touch screen effect'. The help animated file was excellent and very clear, and the games were engaging.

Overall, I thought that this was a good exercise to do, to get used to evaluating games, dvds etc, and understanding where Heuristics play a part in planning.

Heuristics made simple

This afternoon we have had a presentation on Jakob Nielson's Heuristics. What's that you might ask? Nielson was a pioneer in rules for usability on websites. It was great to have a run-down on the 10 usability heuristics (or 'rules of thumb'). We were shown examples such as how the bbc website is great at layout, remembering that people read from top-left to bottom-right. Also, looking at their help documentation and how it is easy to read as it is not a massive pdf file to download, but is right there for if you have a muppet-moment and need something clarified.

Another key rule is to be consistent with colours, menus, as well as providing feedback for users by highlighting things when they click on certain links/functions. These rules are all well and good as far as I am concerned with making websites the best they can be.

Evaluating Websites

Well it is day 3 of d10, and for a quick summary of yesterday afternoon's task, we were given 4 websites to evaluate with the following questions -
1. How easy is it to use?
2. What audience is it made for?
3. Is it a commercial/educational/entertainment product?
4. Is it obvious how to use it, even before you click?
5. Can you tell how it was made?
6. What clues are there?
7. Does it contain mostly image/text/sound?
8. Are you satisfied with the way it works?

We evaluated the following websites -
http://www.billyharveymusic.com
I thought this was quite a good music site, with some interesting navigation, once we had worked it out. It is quite an interactive experience for the user with different animated photos to click on.
http://demo.fb.se/e/if/badluck
This was an advertising/education demo for an insurance company. It was quite simple to use, mainly for homeowners to learn about health and safety.
http://www.ownyourc.com
This was an anti-smoking site for teenagers in Colarado. It mainly had a community feel with lots of colours and animation for young people to explore, which was good. However, one criticism which came out in the session that it was perhaps too subversive in what it was really about, and takes awhile to discover the anti-smoking theme.
http://www.flymetothemoon.es
This is a site for a design agency, with a flash animation which guides the user to a few descriptions of what the agency does, but omits to give their portfolio, which I think is a mistake as that is what you want to see from a design agency.

This was an interesting exercise and got me thinking about what programs were used to make the sites.

New Beginnings

I just have started a course as an Interactive Media trainee. This will be an intensive 6 months learning curve, but I hope that it will give me a solid background to interactive media, and the tools to develop and design on the web.

After yesterday's induction, we have now launched into the course with an overview of 'What is Multimedia'. This gave snapshots of the key developments and history of the interactive media industry, much of which is largely fresh and new to me. I look forward to going into more depth and having intensive training not only on Dreamweaver and Flash, but also 3D software such as Maya.

I learned how the web has been developing more recently, with emphasis on video applications and how this has expanded to mobile phones. It is interesting to think around the usability issues of developments in video and the web, such as the short attention span of users when viewing a small screen such as on the mobile phone.

Also, thinking through the implications of a 2-tier web, with the potential of payment for some of what the web has to offer. This has accessibility issues as well as the impact of excluding some users from the interactive experience on the web.

I know it will be an intensive 6 months, but I am looking forward to the variety of input we will have. We also get to check out some places in the industry, starting with a trip to S4C.