PROJECT 1:
HEURISTIC EVALUATION + COGNITIVE WALKTRHOUGH
Hope Winchell 1-26-2020
HOPE WINCHELL / PROJECT 1
ELEVATE https://www.elevateapp.com
Elevate is a cognitive brain training app that allows you to train with a variety of games designed to strengthen your skills.
elevateapp.com
INTRO
The leading goals of the evaluations discussed in this report were to discover any usability issues that currently exist in the app Elevate. By extensively evaluating all aspects of the current UI, forthcoming testing and research done with the application can be better understood by the assessors. Elevate is a mobile application designed to provide cognitive brain training using a variety of skill-focused games. The app has many awards including Apple’s Editor’s choice of the year; therefore, an evaluator can expect previous user research to be moderately thorough at this point. Given the information, Elevate features a well-designed UI with five sections. The activities and trainings sections are the two most used areas. The activities section features 35 games for critical cognitive skills. The more you use elevate, the more your cognitive skills will increase. The app is intended for all users who can read and write, and categorized under educational. Prospective users may include anyone who is looking to strengthen skills in a creative way.
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METHODS HEURISTIC EVALUATION METHOD: The first method used to evaluate Elevate was a Heuristic Analysis. This method provides a set of principles that help guide and critique design choices; developed by Jakob Nielsen for Usability Experts.
PROCESS: When conducting this evaluation, the first step taken was to develop a set of heuristics that best fit the system. I decided to use Nielsen’s list to examine all components of Elevate, but primarily focus on the onboarding process and activities section. I then began my first initial evaluation of the app. I used this initial examination to become familiar with the app and interaction, while noting any preliminary problems that raised a red flag. I then spent time interacting with problem areas Elevate is a cognitive brain training app that and using the heuristics to define and categorize the problem. I then used and negaallows you these to trainpositive with a variety of games designed to strengthen your skills. tive findings and identified the heuristic violated, the severity of the issue, and a recommendation. Overall, I came across 8 mediocre to major issues that I then addressed during this step. A total of three evaluations were analyzed, all done in an individual setting.
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METHODS
(CONT.)
COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGH METHOD: The second method used to evaluate Elevate was a cognitive walkthrough. The objective of this method is to examine the overall usability of the systems usability, while focusing on certain task(s). All in all, this walkthrough helps put the mental thoughts and action on paper when using an interface for the first time; this step can help uncover many problems early in the development phase and provide an adequate amount of feedback. This method is always performed by an expert evaluator.
PROCESS: The scope of this walk through asked the user to use the mobile application, complete the onboarding process, and train their agility skills using a specific activity selected. I decided to focus on this task primarily because it highlighted a select amount of severe problems found during the Elevate a cognitive training app that heuristic evaluations. The user was given a set of eight specific steps toisguide thembrain through the allows you to train with a variety of games scope. At each step, four questions were asked: designed to strengthen your skills. 1. Will the user realistically be trying to do this action 2. Is the control for the action visible? 3. Is there a strong link between the control and the action? 4. Is feedback appropriate? The steps broke down guiding the user to through one path. They were first asked to download the app and complete the onboarding process and EPQ quiz. Next, they were guided to the activities section of the app and asked to find the reading category of the app. They then proceeded to play the agility exercise and lastly review and analyze their content report. As the assessor walkthrough the app/tasks, they also recorded their thoughts, reactions, and issues during each of the steps. I then used this cognitive walkthrough and compiled a list of key problems.
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HOPE WINCHELL / PROJECT 1
POSITIVE FINDINGS SUMMARY 1. USE OF SYSTEMS STATUS There were many wonderful things found in elevate. In fact, the good definitely outweighed the issues that came across. One thing that I recognized again and again were the various system statuses on pages. 1. The onboarding quiz and sign-up showed a progress bar. 2. The training page gave you milestones to unlock – these were all animated. 3. Achievements display on profile page allows you to visually tack your goals and progress. 4. Screen starts shading as time runs out for the current question – unique progress status bar. 5. Game progress status always unique (building a picture, timer, or hearts left).
System status at top of page constantly updating. Not distracting.
Progress bar Training page - tracking progress.
Shapes transition as you answer correctly.
2. EASY TO LEARN APP/ CLEAN + CONSISTENT UI The app was overall very easy to navigate and learn. For users who had previously played mobile games, most of the functional UI buttons were located in the same places (pause button, navigation bar, help, profile settings, etc.). Each page and game were for the most part consistent yet engaging.
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USABILITY PROBLEMS SUMMARY 1. To easy for user to ignore tips that appear to teach users about their incorrect answer. When completing certain activities, you are given feedback after each question when you answer incorrectly. For example, the grammar training gives you a full breakdown of where you made a mistake and gives you a two sentence explanation on how to learn from this mistake. This overly provides extremely useful information, yet the natural instinct is to quickly exit of the screen to continue to the next question. The point of these exercises are to learn and improve and this defeats the purpose. . (SEE SCREESHOTS ATTACHED AND COGNITIVE WALKTHROUHG FOR MORE DETAILS)
RECOMMENDATION:
I recommend implementing a timer on these overlays so the user actually reads this feedback, and after viewing the screen for at least 10 seconds they can then continue on to the next questions. Time is locked for user when viewing, which is a plus.
Feedback providing more information. Not easy to get to this screen.
One more example of this case. Optional to view this screen.
Feedback overly. If you tap anywhere on screen it exits this.
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USABILITY PROBLEMS
(CONT.)
SUMMARY 2. Post-training report provides the user with a vast amount of information. Natural response is to click through it with a quick skim. When completing any activity in Elevate, start to finish, you are given an extensive list of feedback regarding your performance. While this report can be very valuable to the user, the vast amount of information is very overwhelming – and most of the time will not be reviewed. The sections here include Elevate Proficiency Quotient, Memory Difficulty, Accuracy, and lastly a report of the content in the training providing the correct answer to each question. . (SEE SCREESHOTS ATTACHED AND COGNITIVE WALKTHROUHG FOR MORE DETAILS)
RECOMMENDATION:
The report should be sectioned out better – info needs to be prioritized. The charts should also be easier for users to understand without having to navigate to separate screens to read documentation regarding how to understand what is displayed. I also recommend that each section have a brief summary and an expandable drop down with more detailed information if the user would like to read more into the insights.
One of the content reports that are sectioned out well. Each activity is different.
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USABILITY PROBLEMS SUMMARY 3. Subjective onboarding quiz with little explanation. While my evaluations and walkthroughs did not focus heavily on the onboarding process, many red flags were raised during the EPQ quiz. A screen popped up towards the end of onboarding prompt in the user to start a quiz, the explanation: to help us personalize you training plan�. The user does not know if this is timed or not beforehand, what the extent of it issued for, etc. The contents of the quiz were very subjective – the same 5 questions are used for all users. The questions are timed, but it is not obvious at first; the screen shades as time goes on. The results are then used to create your Elevate proficiency quotient. After trying several times, the results for most users are always the same extremely low. It is also unclear as to what each level means. (SEE SCREESHOTS ATTACHED AND COGNITIVE WALKTHROUHG FOR MORE DETAILS) RECOMMENDATION:
My recommendation is to develop a more personalized quiz catered to your goals, age, and Elevate is a cognitive brain training app that education levels. Using one short quiz to personalize your whole experience is not allows you to train withoptimal a variety to of games designed to strengthen your skills. the rest of your interaction.
Gray shaded background moves down as timer runs out. Can be deceiving to user at first.
Results are subjective in a way. There should be a breakdown of how this formulation came to be.
Explanation that user is provided before hand. More details can be given here.
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USABILITY PROBLEMS SUMMARY 4. Initial Sign-up/Sign-in process– system did not recognize previous user. This problem was not a repetitive issue but can set the tone of the user experience. When signing up for the app and entering in your information, there is no error prevention or system status during this process. One instance was a user had created an account previously but signed up again using the same email. Elevate at the end of this 3 minute process gave an error message saying this user’s email was taken. (SEE SCREESHOTS ATTACHED AND COGNITIVE WALKTHROUHG FOR MORE DETAILS)
RECOMMENDATION:
My recommendations for this instance would be to impliment a system status in each field. Not only email in password, but throughout the rest of fields. Elevate is a cognitive brain training app that allows you to train with a variety of games designed to strengthen your skills.
Example of a possible solution. Gives current status to user.
Current sign-up screen. Gives no solution to errors. User has to problem solve.
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CONCLUSION Overall, the usability of Evaluate is near perfect, it takes an expert evaluator to pick apart the usability issues. By using both Heuristic Evaluations and cognitive walkthroughs, many repetitive issues and concerns came to surface. These include EPQ quizzes, better explanation of certain elements, and systems status issues. While there are more issues not mentioned, these are the most prevalent that would improve the current version of the application. By using these evaluation methods, designers can prevent further complications in future developments.
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APPENDIX
(HEURISTIC EVALUATION)
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APPENDIX
(HEURISTIC EVALUATION)
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APPENDIX
(HEURISTIC EVALUATION)
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APPENDIX
(COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGH)
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APPENDIX
(COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGH)
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