FIT3063 Assignment

Prototype Development: Stage 3

This document details the requirements for Stage 3 of the assignment for FIT3063 for semester 2
2011. Stage 3 involves conducting a heuristic evaluation of the Cane Transport System prototype
you developed for stage 2, reporting on the process and the outcomes.
Stage 3 is due to be submitted by 5pm Friday 21 October.

Heuristic Evaluation
The heuristic evaluation will involve the following steps 1:
1) Working individually, examine your prototype listing any instances of violation or compliance
with Nielsens ten usability heuristics for interface design 2. Consider tasks that each type of
user of the application would perform. During your examination consider at least the following:

Screen Layout
Menus
Dialog boxes
Fonts
Icons
Colours
Highlighting
Labels and messages
Navigation

2) For each violation you identify, explain what the problem is and nominate Nielsens heuristic(s)
which is violated. This explanation must be very specific, with each problem occurrence listed
separately. For example:
Violation: A button which is labeled stealth is actually the minimise button.
This violates Nielsens principles of Match between system and the real world and
Recognition rather than recall.
3) For each case of compliance, you must explain specifically how or why it complies with the
principle. For example:

Refer to the following website for further information on How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation
(http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_evaluation.html)

Information about Nielsens Ten Usability Heuristics may be found at:

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html.

FIT3063 2011

Compliance: The mouse cursor changes to an hourglass when a background process is

executing.
This complies with Nielsens principle of Visibility of system status.
4) Meet with your group member(s) and combine your lists to form an agreed list of violations and
an agreed list of compliances.
5) Rate the severity of each violation according to the Severity rating scale shown below.
Severity rating scale:
0 do not agree that this is a usability problem
1 cosmetic problem
2 minor usability problem
3 major usability problem; important to fix
4 usability catastrophe; imperative to fix
6) List the violations from most to least severe. For each violation specify a suggested fix for the
problem. For example:
Violation: A button which is labeled stealth is actually the minimise button.
This violates Nielsens principles of Match between system and the real world and
Recognition rather than recall.
How to fix it: Rename button with common term such as minimise or hide.
Note that the final lists that you submit must be limited to a combined total of 20 instances of
violation and/or compliance although it is expected that in your investigation you will find
considerably more than this.

Report Contents
This report must be a maximum of 1000 words not including the appendix. The word limit must not
be exceeded; however, please note that the quality of the content is more important than any
perceived need to reach the word limit. Specifically the report should contain:
1) Title page and table of contents.
2) A description of the process you used to conduct the evaluation using Nielsens ten usability
heuristics for interface design.
3) A description of the process of merging the individual heuristic evaluation results.
4) A final agreed list of interface problems, severity ratings and suggested fixes.
5) A final agreed list of compliances.
6) An appendix with each persons initial lists of violations and compliances.
Note that it important that you number each page in your report so that it is easy to locate each
component.

FIT3063 2011

Submission Requirements for Stage 3

Stage 3 must be submitted by 5pm Friday 21 October (Week 12). You must submit your
assignment via a link made available in the Assignments section of the FIT3063 Moodle site nearer
the submission date. All submissions must include the following:
1) A .zip file (not a .rar file) uploaded to Moodle by the submission deadline. The .zip file must be
named with your groups id number for this assignment and the assignment stage. For example,
if your group is named Group09-Ca, then the file your group submits should be named
Group09-Ca-stage3.zip.
2) Your group should nominate one group member to submit your assignment to Moodle on behalf
of the group. It is, however, the responsibility of all group members to see that the group
member nominated has submitted as required.
3) The .zip file you submit must contain the following components:

A completed Assignment Cover Sheet, assignment-cover-group.doc, available for

download from the Assignments section of the FIT3063 Moodle site nearer the assignment
submission date.

Your Stage 3 submission as a .pdf file.

Marks will be deducted for any of these requirements that are not complied with.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating has been
confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing
disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound
ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with the University Plagiarism
policy and procedure (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policybank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) which applies to students detected
plagiarising.

FIT3063 2011