HONDA MOTOR COMPANY HEURISTIC EVALUATION REPORT
joyce xu informatics 283 MHCID @ UCI | january 30, 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary Introduction Methodology Findings Recommendations Conclusion
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY quick overview
AT A GLANCE
What is this report about? This report provides a detailed heuristic evaluation of automobiles.honda.com. The purpose of this evaluation is to identify Honda's current website usability issues and provide expert improvement recommendations. Our team identified 6 positives and 10 negative findings across Honda's site and have provided a list of our recommendations for improvement.Â
INTRODUCTION setting the context
THE POWER OF DREAMS automobiles.honda.com is the official site for Honda's line of auto vehicles. The site provides potential buyers and interested parties the opportunity to: browse through all of Honda's current and future line of automotive vehicles build and price different vehicles view current offers search inventory find a dealer
METHODOLOGY our evaluation process
H1. Visibility of system status H2. Match between system and the real world H3. User control and freedom H4. Consistency and standards H5. Error prevention H6. Recognition rather than recall H7. Flexibility and efficiency of use H8. Aesthetic and minimalist design H9. Recognize, diagnose, and recovery from errors H10. Help and documentation
METHODOLOGY Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics Our project team of four evaluated Honda's website using Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics - an industry-wide set of usability guidelines that are used to assess a current interface. The evaluation is an "inspection" of the Honda website and our goal was to identify any violations of the above-mentioned heuristic. We sought out to discover the key usability issues, positive and negative, present on Honda's website.
METHODOLOGY Scenario & Tasks The approach used in this evaluation is based on a set of predetermined scenarios established before each expert's evaluation began. The five main tasks each of the evaluators performed are as follows:
1. Browse vehicles: use the global navigation menu to browse through various vehicle pages 2. Build and price a vehicle: use the Build & Price functionality to get a quote 3. View vehicle features and specifications: view and browse vehicle information 4. Compare vehicles: compare 3 or more vehicles; delete and add a new vehicle to the comparison list 5. Locate a dealer: find a dealer near you
METHODOLOGY Severity Scale Throughout the evaluation process, we ranked each of the findings according to the following severity scaled. These severity codes represent how impactful the issue is on the entire user experience. The lower the severity, the lower the impact.
S1. Cosmetic Issue: fix if there's time and it's easy S2. Minor Issue: low priority, but should be noted S3. Major Issue: has significant potential impact on usability S4. Catastrophic Issue: a 'show-stopper' - must fix asap
FINDINGS what did we discover?
6
positives
&
10 negatives
FINDINGS SUMMARY The team identified 6 positives and 10 negatives during our evaluation. A thorough list and explanation of each positive and negative are as follows.Â
POSITIVES
POSITIVE
H1: Visibility of System Status 1. The banners on the car images allows users to quickly see how many offers are currently available for that model.
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1
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2. The prices, mpg, and options to do more is clearly visible per vehicle.
H2: Match between system and real world 3. The global navigation is useful in identifying which cars you want to view. Users are able to select between various types of vehicles: sedans, SUVs, etc. 4. When a page is loading on the Compare Vehicles feature, the interface keeps users informed using. 4
POSITIVE 1
H4:Consistency and standards 1. Iconography used on the site is easily identifiable. 2. The use of contemporary design standards allows an enjoyable experience.Â
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H5: Error prevention 3. On the Build & Price section of the site, the modal notifications are useful and helpful in preventing a user from resetting their entire confirmation. 4. The sticky navigation follows users as they scroll down the page. This gives them the option to navigate between pages quickly.Â
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4
POSITIVE
H8: Aesthetic and minimalist design
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1. Immediately upon entrance to the site, users are pleased to see a visually pleasing site that is both modern and sleek. The site is very much image drive - as expected.
H10: Help and documentation 2. A robust search engine exists and works well. The engine picks up relevancy and offers users assistance on how to proceed if users do not find what they are looking for.Â
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3. Search is located in both the top and the bottom of the global site. 3
NEGATIVES
NEGATIVE
H1: Visibility of system status 1. After clicking on one of the vehicles from the global navigation menu, users are brought into the vehicle overview page (i.e. Honda Accord, Clarity Plug-In Hybrid). The header carousel shows various images of the car, but no model name, price or any other info. Some models have it displayed, while others do not. It's unclear which vehicle a user is currently looking at.
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2. This page shows a positive example of the Civic SI model clearly named and all important information viewable.
Recommendation Display vehicle models, price, and MPG clearly on each page, above the fold. S4
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NEGATIVE
H2: Match between system and real world 1. Use of unfamiliar language may be a challenge to some users. Specifically, on the car details page, a list of features is provided, yet no explanation of what they are.
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2. On the bottom page, you'll find a button underneath price info that reads "explore" and a link on the top left that says "Discover". However, in the real world, you wouldn't say "let's go explore vehicles" you would use terms like "shop" or "browse".
Recommendation Display info buttons next to each feature. This will allow users to get a better understanding of what these Honda specific features are.
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S3
NEGATIVE
H3: User control and freedom 1. Navigating through the pages is challenging because all the images take a long time to load. This may cause users to get irritated and abandon the page altogether.
Recommendation Decrease waiting time. Enable users to quickly view pages so they do not have to wait for the page to load. S3
1
NEGATIVE
H4: Consistency and standards 1. There's an error in the vehicles menu which erodes user trust and confidence. As a user, it's very confusing and unclear what to do when you encounter a dropdown that interferes with the menu.
Recommendation This is a quick and easy fix that should be fixed immediately. If left undone, it will continue to dampen Honda's customer shopping experience S2
1
NEGATIVE
H4: Consistency and standards 1. On the Honda Fit EV vehicle, the user is brought to a completely new page that does not resemble anything they've previously seen. 1
Recommendation The page should be consistent with all other vehicle overview pages. S3
NEGATIVE
H5: Error prevention 1. On the car comparison page, there is an X located on the top right of ever car that allows you to remove that car from the comparison list. It does not allow the user to undo the delete if they would like to re-add.
Recommendation Allows users to undo actions on this specific feature and the Build Your Car features. S2
1
NEGATIVE
H6: Recognition rather than recall 1. On the Locate a Dealer page, the search for zip-code functionality is difficult to use. Users have to enter a zip-code and then choose the State in the Dropdown icon below and then hit the enter button. However, the drop-down button is hidden and is not obvious what it's intended for.
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2. Once search results are displayed, users have to scroll to see all results. This is extremely cumbersome and this page should just display all results.
Recommendation The State selector drop-down should be clearly displayed so users understand they need to select it before proceeding to start the search. Reduce need for users to scroll to see all search results.
S3
2
NEGATIVE
H6: Recognition rather than recall 1. Honda's use of iconography in the vehicle features and sepcifications section does a poor job explaining what these features represent. It's not intuitive to the user and leaves then guessing.
Recommendation Provide labeling for each icon so users do not have to interpret. S3
1
NEGATIVE
H7: Flexibility and efficiency of use 1. Users are overloaded with information and visuals on each the vehicle selection dropdown and the build & price dropdown. Although Honda provides a categorization of vehicles, there are simply too many choices negates the experience, impacting recognition of information. Scrolling through the page is strenuous. 1
Recommendation Display vehicle in a consolidated way so users do not have to go through so much scrolling in order to find the information they are looking for. Allow users to search here. Allow a save feature for returning users. S4
NEGATIVE
H7: Flexibility and efficiency of use 1. The Build & Price feature currently anchors to the lower half of the vehicle overview page. It expects users to open each tab and fill out their desired features. This expands and pushes the page even further, causing all the content to move down. As a result, the model picture is not visible. Every time you add something, users have to scroll back up to see the change reflected in the model picture.
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2. These tabs unintentionally put a burden on the users and may turn them away from using this site and move to competitors.
Recommendation Move the Build & Price feature into its own respective page - not clustered inside the vehicle overview page. Consider something that resembles a product page to accommodate the Build & Price's robust functionality. S3
2
RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY Heuristic
Issue Identified
Severity
Recommendation
H1
Car titles are not shown
S4. Catastrophic
Display vehicle model names, price and MPG clearly
H2
Unfamiliar language
S3. Major
Display info tooltip next to unfamiliar specs and features
H3
Pages load slow
S3. Major
Decrease waiting time. Upgrade technology
H4
Bug on Build & Price page
S2. Minor
Fix bug
H4
Vehicle page inconsistent
S3. Major
Be consistent with all vehicle overview pages
H5
Cannot undo an action
S2. Major
Allow users to undo actions to become more self-sufficient
H6
Not able to select State
S3. Major
Provide a hint or allow users to see entire State name field
H6
Iconography is hard to comprehend
S3. Major
Provide labeling for each icon to overcome cognitive overload
H7
Information overload; site too busy
S4. Catastrophic
Simplify page. Allow users to search for vehicle
H7
Build & price tool is hard to use
S3. Major
Move this feature to its own respective page for more flexibility
CONCLUSION summary and next steps
CONCLUSION 8
Summary and Next Steps Our evaluation reveals several issues that are currently preventing users from performing desired tasks on Honda's website.
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As a follow-up to this evaluation, we recommend conducting a usability test with 3-5 of your customers. In this type of test, we actually observe how your users interact with the Honda site. This will provide a more robust list of issues that are affecting current users of automobiles.honda.com today.
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0 Cosmetic
Minor
Major
severity codes breakdown by ranking
Catastrophic