To date comparative studies have not convinced the HCI community about the reliability of results from usability evaluations. User testing of the same products by different usability teams found different problems (Molich et al., 1999). Discount methods also have the same problem. With heuristic evaluation method, for example, overlaps between evaluators’ results are often as low as 10% (Molich...

It is worthy of note that there is a substantial body of material on assessing democracy assistance more generally. This material has not been included unless it was deemed directly relevant to the issues discussed in this query. Equally, specific programme evaluations have not been included in this report due to time constraints. Nevertheless, it is recognised that such reports often offer an ...

Heuristic evaluation has proven popular for desktop and web interfaces, both in practical design and as a research topic. Compared to full user studies, heuristic evaluation can be highly cost-effective, allowing a large proportion of usability flaws to be detected ahead of full development with limited resource investment. Mobile computing shares many usability issues with more conventional in...

Most game playing programs are based on heuristic game tree search: the nodes at distance t from the root are evaluated by a heuristic evaluation function, and these values are backed up to the root by minimaxing. Following an old investigation by Beal and Smith [1], we discuss depth-t search with randomised evaluation functions: the heuristic leaf evaluations are artificially randomised before...

It is very important that designers recognize the benefits and limitations of different usability inspection methods. This is because the quality of the usability evaluation is dependent on the method used. Two of the most popular usability evaluation techniques are user testing and heuristic analysis. The main objective of this study was to compare the efficiency and effectiveness between user...

Researchers at King Abdulaziz University are developing an application intended to assist people during natural and man-made disasters. The iCalamityGuide presents two distinct user experiences based upon a user’s credentials. This paper reports on a heuristic evaluation of the application and suggests revisions that combine the two experiences when they are the same and differentiate them when...

In this paper, we present the first version of the MetroWeb tool designed to manage usability knowledge and to exploit this knowledge throughout evaluation process phases. The tool supports usability knowledge manipulation in general and specifically supports heuristic inspection. The usability evaluation process supported by the tool is decomposed into 4 main phases: planning, assessment, fina...

Unlike user studies, inspection based methods are not widely researched in the area of Child Computer Interaction. This paper reports the findings of a study to empower teenagers to facilitate a heuristic evaluation with their peers acting as the expert evaluators. In total 20 teenagers participated in the study, with four of the teenagers acting as facilitators and the remainder as evaluators....

Lines of Action (LOA) is a two-person zero-sum chess-like connection game with perfect information. The goal of each side is to connect its own pieces. The state-space complexity and game-tree complexity are comparable with those of Othello. A LOA evaluation function usually consists of a combination of the following components: threats, solid formations, (partial) blocking, centralisation, mat...