In the former journal, I have evaluated kiosk information system of the video displays within the “Life and Times of Washington State” exhibit at the Burke Museum. The user group as I observed is casual weekend visitors, more specifically adults with children. My assumption is that the visitors will have no more than general knowledge about natural history. The challenge for an information system will be to encourage the interaction of parents and children. Also, it must present information in such a way that both children and adults are engaged. According to Nielsen’s Ten Usability Heuristics, I would like to use a heuristic study of the existing TV monitor system in an attempt to evaluate its effectiveness at achieving these goals.
Here are10 heuristics for this information system I developed with my friends, who came to the Burke Museum with me. Additionally, we set the severity ratings scale by one to five points (showed in Table 1). Because of the limited people, we just listed the problems we observed and rated it based on the agreement.
Table 1 Heuristics Evaluation Form
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Heuristics |
Strongly Agree |
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Strongly Disagree |
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1.The system responds quickly when the start button is pushed |
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3 |
4 |
5 |
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2.The system is functional |
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3.The volume is appropriate for the environment |
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4.The user can control the presentation |
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5.Seating is available and well-placed to allow the user to watch the presentation |
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6.The system is multi-lingual and/or provides for the hearing impaired |
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7.The functions of the multi-media system and stamp are easily understood |
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8.The directional sequence of the exhibit is clear and easily followed |
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9.The function of each kiosk is similar |
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10.The height, placement and size of TV monitors is appropriate for many different users |
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The results of my evaluation are showed in Table 2. I think there are serious problems in mappings and metaphors while there is little or no problem in speaking users’ language and keeping systems consistency. What we need to improve most is to design the figure and flow of this system by using nature mapping method.
Table 2 Reason of evaluation results
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No |
Score |
Reason |
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1 |
4 |
It is inconvenient for the users to wait for several minutes after pushing the button. However, most of users still would like to wait. |
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2 |
1 |
All the buttons work. |
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3 |
3 |
It is a little loud since one user stepped back after the video began to play |
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4 |
5 |
Users totally have no right to control this process. There is no interactive experience for the users. |
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5 |
5 |
There is no seat around the kiosks. The nearest seat is 5 steps away from the video. |
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6 |
5 |
There might be another language. But this language is for not for main introduction. Also, there are no device could be lent for the hearing impaired. |
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7 |
1 |
Even my English is poor, I still can easily understand. So with other children. |
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8 |
5 |
It is not nature mapping because the exit of the exhibition is more near the museum door than the entrance. Many people walk oppositely including me. |
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9 |
2 |
All seems similar except one’s shape |
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10 |
5 |
I feel two are too high for me and the other one is too low for me. Children might feel too high because they need to raise their head to watch TV. |
