U06d2 Usability Inspection

The ultimate goal of the e-learning training is to teach administrative and teaching assistants to
use the video conferencing system effectively. With that goal in mind, I looked for websites that
showed how to use a video conferencing system. One of the sites is Polycom, a manufacturer of
video conferencing systems. While it isnt exactly as I imagine my site will look, its a good
example of video conferencing training.
http://learningcenter.polycom.com/plconline/courses/2008/hdx.eut/hdx_eut.htm

From the first page, the user is given some introductory information on how to use the
training site. It is a pre-recorded walkthrough which I believe moves too fast for the user. I had
to reload the page several times to follow the instructions, so I dont feel like this is an effective
how to training for novice users. The left hand menus move as you navigate through the site,
and not necessarily to the correct header category. It is not intuitive for navigation, as the main
topics of Introduction, Placing Calls, etc have information if you click on those areas, but if you
assume that they are only the headers and that the information are in the sub menus, you wont
ever click on the top menu and will probably miss information.

The contrast of the white on grey is hard to read for users as well.

I also think that there is the possibility for cognitive overload with the definitions and the
information. The contrast on this page makes it particularly hard to read and some of the
definitions that pop up cover the menu to the right.

There was a decided lack of user control of the audio embedded in the site no volume control,
no ability to pause or review the narration and no transcript or text for user referral.

When there is interactive parts to the site and the user is asked to try something, such as manual
dialing, the site doesnt work as expected:

The instructions tell the user to type in numbers in the box and to use the round circle in the
middle of the remote to move backwards and correct a wrong number. When I tried this out, it
went into dial mode, and wouldnt let me attempt to follow the instructions for correcting a
mistake.
There are also confusing instructions, such in the Overview page:

When the audio narration finishes, it tells the user to click the Next button at the bottom of the
page. However, there is a red Next button at the top of the page, which leads to more
information about the hardware. The bottom next button moves the user to the next area, which
is the remote under the Introduction tab. The navigation menu also opens up the next section
Placing Calls even though the user is still in the first section. The contrary information can be
confusing to a novice learner.

I created a heuristic chart using the information from Nielsens list (Stone et al., 2005) and from
Tan (2003, as referenced in Tan et al., 2009) as I felt that the two helped to identify issues that
were found. The matrix is based off of information found in the Tan, Liu and Bishu (2009)
paper.

Key
* Severe Problems - catastrophic
* Medium Problems - users can
overcome the problem
* Mild Problems - users can easily work
around issues
Section in blue as recommended by
Stone et al., 2005.
Selections in green as recommended by
Tan (2003) as references by Tan et al.,
2009

Elaine

References:
Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., & Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and
evaluation. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Tan, W., Liu, D., & Bishu, R. (2009). Web evaluation: Heuristic evaluation vs. user testing.
International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 39(4), 621-627.
doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2008.02.012