Conducting An Assessment

Using Information Architecture Heuristics

presented by:

Abby Covert@Abby_The_IA

REMINDERS– The rules of heuristic use

1. Put on your user shoes: Forget where you work and what your job is.

2. Put on your user goggles: None of these principles matter without understanding the context of use and who your users are.

3. Say “I am not my user”: Never use heuristic review as a replacement for user research.

The 10 Principles

Activity Instructions

Task Channel (Context)

List 3 core tasks you expect your audience to value over others

List the channels that their path will put them into contact with and in what context.

Step 1: identify Tasks and Channels for evaluation

Example:

Task Channel (Context)

Buying a pair of shoes and feeling comfortable about her purchase.

• Website (browsing)• eCommerce (purchase)• Email (confirmation)• Mobile (checking email)• Social (bragging)

Principle Context & Expectations Pre Test Score

List each principle in order of importance based on the coverage of the outlined tasks and organizational priorities.

Provide notes on the tasks that make each principle essential.

List any expectations you anticipate from users

Assign a pre test score against each principle

Good range to use is grade

•A = Above average in current implementation•F = Not acceptable in current implementation

Step 2: Prioritize Principles by context, group evaluation by principle

For details on the principles and guiding questions, visit:

http://abbytheia.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/ia_heuristics/

Principle Context & expectations for review Pre Test Score

1. Accessibility We need to be able to be used on a mobile device yet we have never put any money towards that effort.

B

2. Clear Our offering is complex and we need to focus on clarity yet we also understand that we may not be where we need to be because of never agreeing on our offerings.

B-

Example

<Principle>

Finding Severity Impact if Fixed

List each major finding in as much detail as you feel you need to tell the story and capture the severity.

Note: there will be overlap, so condense after your analysis where needed.

Critical: Affecting the ability to complete a task

Medium: Affecting brand reputation or perception of experience

Low: Non-impacting issues that would be nice to fix

Describe what would be improved if this was fixed. Think not just about users, but also about organizational efficiency

Step 3: Group Findings by Priority

Accessibility

Finding Severity Impact if Fixed

Email template is not mobile friendly and had several instances of broken links when interacted on mobile devices

Medium: Affecting brand reputation or perception of experience

Users are not using email to its full advantage today because of the lack of mobile friendly style sheet. We expect a uptick in email click through rate if mobile optimized.

Example

Principle High Level Findings Pre Test Today

List each principle in order of importance (as established in step 2)

• Bullets level, hard hitting highlights

Old Score

New Score

Step 4: Revisit Measurement, Post Improvements

Principle High Level Findings Pre Test Today

Accessibility • Email is a channel that we now understand is highly inaccessible via email

B C

Example

Where to go next…

• Use the negative findings as areas to probe in analytics and user testing

• Complete the same methodology on your competitors and see where you score comparatively

• Provide better input into the road-mapping process for future enhancements and improvements

thank you• For listening

• For caring

• For making the internet a better place

Twitter: @Abby_The_IA

Email: abby@understandinggroup.com

The company that enables me do awesome stuff like this for awesome people like you.

Brought to you by: