Heuristic Evaluation of Geoweb: Case Study

Usability is a part of quality, and this article focuses on the one of testing methods that can be used in usability testing. There are plenty of methods to verify usability, like usability testing, heuristic evaluation, heuristic estimation, cognitive walkthrough, pluralistic walkthrough, consistency inspection, etc. Heuristic evaluation was chosen for this case study. This method was described by Nielsen and Molich in 1990. The publicly accessible GeoWebs, presented in the website “Facts and Data” at http://portal.env.cz/, has been subjected to this type of testing. This is a portal of the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. In this site some links to mapping services can be found. Published projects from the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic that were chosen for evaluating were: CENIA, AOPK CR, and Geofond due to functionality. These projects have been compared with a list of heuristics. The separate sections of heuristics were: environment of user interface, used technology, error dilemma, flexibility, aesthetics and design, user-friendly application, privacy, help and documentation, skills, user control and freedom, and a list of maps. Key-Words: software engineering, software quality, heuristic evaluation, heuristics, GeoWeb, usability, usability engineering