Kurt Blancaflor

10/14/16
HCDE 417
TIDAL Heuristic Evaluation (Individual)
User: Loyal music fan following their favorite artists.
Goal: To find and listen to Beyonces new exclusive album, Lemonade.
Tasks:
1.

Sign

up for TIDAL.

2.

Search

for album on the Home (Whats New?) screen.

3.

Search

for album among the Show All section of new albums.

4.

Use

search function to find album in case its not found and select album.

5.

Pick

a song and listen.

Rubric
Registration
Heuristic

Pass/Fail

Explanation

Design Change
Recommendation

Visibility of system status

Fail

Paragraph
explaining free trial
is placed under
promotional image
for Bon Jovi.

Emphasize free trial

information by
making text bigger
or bolding text.

Welcome screen
isnt very
welcoming.

Use more exciting

text and center the
text box on the

screen.
Match between system and the
real world

Pass

Gives users
options to sign up
using
facebook/twitter
using appropriately
colored buttons
with corresponding
logos.

User control and freedom

Fail

No way to go back
after you reach the
subscription screen
in case you want to
change your login
details.

Add
back-arrow/option
to go back after
hitting Continue.

Consistency and standards

Fail

Doesnt let users

know they can skip
the step in which
they are asked to
enter more personal
information for
TIDAL X.

Explain what
TIDAL X is more
and add a skip
button for users.

Error prevention

Fail

Text exists to
establish consent
when the user
presses Continue.

Add an I agree to
these terms and
conditions
checkbox to better
warn users.

Recognition rather than recall

Fail

If an error occurs
after clicking
Continue, a red
error text appears
but all of the
account content is
deleted so users
have to reenter their
information rather
than editing it.

Keep user
information between
errors.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Pass

Aesthetic and minimalist

design

Fail

The welcome screen

is not centered.

Center the welcome

screen text box.

There are also two

broken image links
to the left-middle of
the screen.
Help users recognize,
diagnose, and recover from
errors

Pass

Help and documentation

Pass

Erase or fix the

broken image links.

When entering
setup account
information, text
boxes are bordered
in green if
everythings ok and
in red with an
appropriate red
error text to identify
discrepancies.

Whats New
Heuristic

Pass/Fail

Explanation

Design Change
Recommendation

Visibility of system status

Fail

After signing up
TIDAL immediately
takes you to the
downloads screen
so that you can
download the
official TIDAL app.
However, it doesnt
let you know that
you can use the
Web Player, or that
it is available.

Users should be
directed straight to
the home screen
after signing up for
the app.

Match between system and the

real world

Pass

User control and freedom

Pass

Consistency and standards

Fail

The upper-most
section of the
Whats New page
has featured
content, but at first

Further categorize
the featured content
or make its type of
content more
recognizable.

glance it is difficult
to categorize/make
sense of them...

Error prevention

Pass

Recognition rather than recall

Pass

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Fail

Aesthetic and minimalist

design

Pass

Help users recognize,

diagnose, and recover from
errors

Pass

Help and documentation

Pass

All content (tracks,

artists, playlists,
music videos, etc.)
looks the same. It
can be difficult to
make sense of what
is what, especially
when everything is
condensed.

Differentiate content
by emphasizing the
art less and using
more readable
labels.

Some content have

blue exclusive
banners on their
upper-right corner,
but there is no
exclusives section
to be found on the
Whats New page.

Add an
Exclusives
section for users
looking for
exclusive content.

Show All Screen (Albums)

Heuristic

Pass/Fail

Explanation

Design Change
Recommendation

Visibility of system status

Fail

Recommending
albums already
even though I have
no prior listening

Add text feedback

to indicate that the
service understands
that Im a new user,

history.

and where these

recommendations
may be coming
from.

Match between system and the

real world

Fail

Albums are ordered

in terms of date (Im
assuming, since Im
looking at the
New section) but
a lack of option to
alphabetize the
albums by album
title or artist makes
finding a specific
album difficult (if I
dont know the
album cover art).

Add option to sort

by name, artist,
date, etc.

User control and freedom

Fail

No arrows
indicating an option
to return to the
Whats New page.

Add a back-arrow
to allow users to
return to the
previous page.

Instead, navigation
looks like:
WHATS
NEW/ALBUMS
Consistency and standards

Fail

Error prevention

Pass

Recognition rather than recall

Pass

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Fail

Albums/content is
listed 10 per row,
even under the Top
20 section where
there is much
unused space
beneath the second
row.

Reorganize content
according to the
number of results to
make information
more
readable/scannable.

No search bar to
search among the
albums presented.

Add a search bar for

the content being
presented to the
user.

Instead, there is a

search bar for the

overall website on
the upper-right
corner.
Aesthetic and minimalist
design

Fail

Help users recognize,

diagnose, and recover from
errors

Pass

Help and documentation

Pass

No option to get rid

of menu on the left
side of the screen to
focus on the current
page.

Add option to hide

menu on the left
side of the screen.

Design Change
Recommendation

Search Function
Heuristic

Pass/Fail

Explanation

Visibility of system status

Pass

Results section is
quick and presents
results by category.

Match between system and the

real world

Fail

Have to spell what

youre searching for
perfectly in order to
find it.

Make the search

system more lenient
to show more
possible results
when the user is
unsure how
something should
be spelled.

Fail

Two identical
results appeared
under Albums
after searching for
lemonade.

Fix errors/potential
for duplicating
content.

User control and freedom

Consistency and standards

Categories are
prioritized (listed

higher-lower) in the
order of: Artists,
Tracks, Albums,
Videos, Playlists.
(This does not
change according to
whats being
searched).
Error prevention

Pass

Recognition rather than recall

Pass

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Pass

Aesthetic and minimalist

design

Pass

Help users recognize,

diagnose, and recover from
errors

Pass

Help and documentation

Pass

Additional options
available in search
results indicated by
ellipses next to
results.

System displays
No results
Found...Please try
again in the results
section if no results
are found.

Selecting a Song
Heuristic

Pass/Fail

Explanation

Design Change
Recommendation

Visibility of system status

Fail

The song that is

playing is
highlighted in blue
and bolded.
However,
concurrently, there
can be a selected
song that is
highlighted in blue

Maybe use an icon

to indicate what
song is playing to
eliminate confusion
about what is
selected.

as well.
Match between system and the
real world

Fail

Executive
producer/bio
information gives
credit to the people
that worked on each
song, but is
presented in a
dense set of words
per song.

Make this
information more
readable and
eliminate all caps.

Add to playlist
button looks like a
Download file
button and its
function is only
apparent after the
user has highlighted
it with their cursor.

Use a more intuitive

icon for this
function.

User control and freedom

Fail

No back-arrow to
allow users to go
back to the previous
screen.

Add an arrow to aid

in screen
navigation.

Consistency and standards

Fail

Identical albums
featured under
Other Albums
section of the
Lemonade album
screen.

Eliminate possible
duplicate albums.

Every track title is in

all caps. (Is this
by choice or is this
a mistake?)

Improve formatting
consistency for
song titles and bio
information.

The repeat button

looks almost like a
rewind by
seconds button.

Adjust the repeat

button to make it
more
understandable.

When a song is

Remove the

Error prevention

Pass

Recognition rather than recall

Fail

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Pass

Aesthetic and minimalist

design

Fail

Help users recognize,

diagnose, and recover from
errors

Pass

Help and documentation

Pass

selected, the songs

after it in the album
are automatically
added to the play
queue. However,
manually added
songs are placed
next in the queue,
but the previous
songs in the queue
are pushed to the
end, and it assumes
that users still want
to listen to the next
songs in the album
eventually.

automatically added
songs after the user
has manually added
songs to the queue.

Executive
producer/bio
information is all
capitalized.

Make this
information more
readable by using
normal
capitalization and
breaking down song
information into
paragraph form.

Definitions
Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within
reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather
than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and
logical order.
User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave
the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.
Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the
first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation
option before they commit to the action.
(Read full article on preventing user errors.)
Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have
to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should
be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
(Read full article on recognition vs. recall in UX.)
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that
the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information
in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and
constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation

Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide
help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list
concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.