uPortal Walkthroughs - Admin Staff Persona Brad Dieger (Kathy)

(Accessibility and usability heuristic evaluations combined with cognitive walkthroughs)

Evaluation Completed by: Kathy Moore

URL: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/pages/createpage.action?spaceKey=fluid&fromPageId=328018
Date: September 12, 2007

Heuristic reviews and cognitive walkthroughs were performed on a Dell pc at 1152 resolution and millions of colors using Firefox on Win xp over a T1 connection.

See UX Walkthrough Heuristics for heuristics used in this evaluation.

Scope of Walkthrough

• See uPortal Evaluation Plan

User profile(s) and context of use:

Persona: Brad Dieger, admin/staff, Faculty Support
uPortal: Public/Guest page, Login, myUBC news, Events Calendar, RSS Aggregator, Management System Portal

• See Sakai Personas

Scenarios

Scenarios will generally only be used for the cognitive walk-through, not the heuristic evaluation. However, it is fine to use these scenarios for the heuristic evaluation if it is helpful to evaluators in figuring out how to walk through the application. See uPortal Content Management Scenarios for a list of all possible scenarios. Evaluators will likely only cover some of the scenarios, in one of the roles, in their individual evaluations.

• General Overview (heuristic evaluation)
• Finding.....

NOTE: heuristic and accessibility information here duplicates that posted at http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/AAYa by the same reviewer (Kathy.)

• Scenario 1: Brad needs to make an announcement about the next session for faculty training.

• Scenario 2 : Brad wants to check his vacation days balance and see if he has enough time join his buddy for a fishing trip.

• [List any additional assumptions used in evaluation]

Positive Findings

All positive findings, from both the heuristic evaluation and the cognitive walk-through, should be placed in this section.

Usability Positives	Tool	Evaluator
Tabs provide clear navigation	Tabs	Kathy Moore
Window manipulation tools provide flexibility	Minimize, maximize, delete, (detach)
Page is clearly structured into (clearly-labeled?) logical sections	Tabs, columns, channels






Accessibility Positives	Tool	Evaluator
Page is clearly structured into (clearly-labeled?) logical sections Some labels are clearer than others.	Tabs, columns, channels	Kathy Moore
Channel controls (shade, focus, remove) show alt/title tags	Shade, Focus, Remove

Summary of Usability & Accessibility Issues Found

All usability & accessibility issues found, in both the heuristic evaluation and the cognitive walk-through, should be placed in this section.

Priority Legend:

High = Task cannot be completed

Medium = Task completed with significant effort and failed attempts

Low = Task completed with minor complications and/or annoyance

Usability Issues	Principle	Priority	Suggestions for solution	Tool	Component Identified?
"Channel" language may be unfamiliar	Match between system and the real world: The system should speak users' language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user.	Low	Is "window" a more familiar term?	Channel
"Channels" do not all follow same behavior; One allows use within uPortal, another appears in new tab. A few links replace uPortal in existing window.	Consistency and standards	Medium	Use different visual metaphors and language to describe "channels" that do or do not keep the user in uPortal.	Channel/ May be a matter of best practices
Some text overlaps on Win xp Firefox even at normal size, 1152px width; were designers on mac?	Visibility	Medium	Allow text to stack Use shorter titles
User can end up looking in many (plausible places) for a single bit of information; See Brad posting Faculty training. Ed looking for course registration deadline	Efficiency of use				What's new aggregator // this would also be useful in Sakai. Probably runs into familiar (variable) portal content limitations as to whether it's truly manipulable/accessible by the portal, though

Accessibility Issue	Principle	Priority	Suggestions for solution	Tool
In win Firefox, Home screen scrolls horizontally at 800X600; rightmost of three columns is entirely hidden.	screen should adjust to different resolutions	Medium	Lefthand column should collapse to share screen	Channel?
Is minimize (shade) omitted from the tab sequence?	All functionality should be available via tabs
Many links spawn new tabs/windows. Is this an accessibility issue?

Cognitive Walkthrough Worksheet

This section should be used by evaluators to keep track of the steps & screens they followed through the application in the cognitive walk-through. Any positive results or issues found should be included in the two sections above.

*Scenario 1: Brad needs to make an announcement about the next session for faculty training.

#	Step	Comments/issues	Principle	Suggestions for solution
1	Scan first tab after login; Does Brad have access to "myUBC news? Can he count on faculty to read it?	Maybe
2	He could post to the Events Calendar; it even has a "Personal and Professional Development" category Help button: "please also contact us to see if you can publish your events in Events Calendar." Will people look there?	Maybe
3	There's a "Learning" feed in the "news" listings; does Jim have access to these? Will people look there?	Maybe These are all plausible locations for Jim's post, but the visitor (the audience) might overlook any given one of them; It looks as though creating meaningful information hierarchy and organization is a huge challenge in a portal.	High --The ambiguity may effectively prevent Brad from reaching lis goal and faculty from reaching some of theirs	What's new aggregator // this would also be useful in Sakai.

Scenario 2: Brad wants to check his vacation days balance and see if he has enough time join his buddy for a fishing trip.

#	Step	Comments/issues	Principle	Suggestions for solution
1	Scan first tab after login for possibilities	Note overlapping text in win/FF Also, title does not help user understand what's here; reading text reveals that it includes HR	Visibility Match between system and real world	Let text stack? Title below bar: Enter UBC HR & Financial Systems
2	Give focus to desired window	This is difficult to do because text overlaps buttons	Flexibility and efficiency of use	Use shorter titles
3	Click "enter"	We've left portal	Consistency and standards	Find a way to keep more content in portal. Use different visual metaphors and language to describe "channels" that do or do not keep the user in uPortal.