User Experience Research Report:

User Experience Research Report:

INDIAN PASSPORT SEVA WE

www.passportindia.gov.in

A Heuristics Evaluation Created by:

ANGELYN M. JACABAN
BSCS 3-F

Word Count:3650
Date 12-14-23
Executive Summary
This report will document the heuristics evaluation conducted on Indian Passport Seva
Website. Tasks includes is to issue passports to eligible Indian citizens and services
provided by the site.
The Heuristic evaluation conducted was guided by the usability engineering method
designed by Jakob Nielsen in 1994.
Generally, the process starts by searching the scope of the project. I evaluated and
perform the individual analysis of the ten heuristics and adherence and violations of
each. These heuristics cover topics such as feedback, visibility, user control, user
efficiency, help error handling, error prevention and use of metaphors that match the
real world. I have been determined through studying and finding issues to the different
heuristics; therefore, I perform a complete heuristics evaluation each frame of the
website. Each finding is given a severity rating from 0 (not a usability problem) to 4
(usability catastrophe) and assigned recommendation. Finally, I meet to debrief, share
findings, and create a consolidated report of findings, recommendations and severity
ratings.
I performed a heuristics evaluation on the website and also, I consolidated to extract key
findings, recommendations, and severity ratings. Key findings were selected and
highlighted for the purpose of improving the usability of the website, as well as,
document some good examples of heuristics that the website adhering to.

Findings and Recommendations

Finding 1. Password policy is not directly visible to the user and user cannot view
entered password. Recommendation. Displaying password policy information next to
the password field and including a clickable button to toggle password visibility is a
more practical solution.
Finding 2. Browser back button does not work to navigate between pages.
Recommendation. Implement standard browser back button functionality or offer a
site-specific physical back button for navigation.
Finding 3. Repetitive Information resulting in cluttering and reduced efficiency.
Recommendation. Consolidate information under a single heading, prioritizing
essential links at the beginning for easy user access, allowing for a cleaner and more
visually optimized display with larger fonts and increased spacing.
Finding 4. No hint/help provided to understand the meaning of short forms used.
Recommendation. Displaying a message below the form, such as "Click here to know
more about PSK/POPSK/PSLK," offers immediate assistance on unfamiliar terms,
fostering user confidence and control over their interactions with the website

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 Finding 5. Finding payment amount and payment status information is difficult.
Recommendation. Enhance the readability and user confidence by utilizing a green
tick icon, along with a "payment successful" message and displayed payment amount,
providing clear visibility and avoiding the need for users to navigate or search for
information to identify the successful completion of the payment task.

Finding 6. Checking login id is available to user or not and usage of captcha in login
process. Recommendation. The users should be given the flexibility of choosing
whatever login id they desire without having to check with the system and instead of
using captcha for logging in the website should use email-based login through OTP to
verify the authenticity of user.

Finding 7. After filling up the password and confirm password section no notification is
provided whether password entered is incorrect. Recommendation. A “show
password” and “hide password” on should be placed beside the password section for user
to check the authenticity of password entered, and the interface should be designed such
that the user gets notified just after entering the incorrect password rather than having to
complete the process.

Finding 8. The color scheme used in the website and huge banner space.
Recommendation. Providing a color scheme that suits the users and minimizes the
usability errors while performing any action.

Finding 9. The absence of icons in quick guides for obtaining a passport creates a
misalignment between users' expectations and the system's presentation.
Recommendation. Identify the essential steps in the passport application process that
users need to follow. Ensure the icons are clear, visually intuitive, and easily associated
with the corresponding actions or information.

Finding 10. The caution sign covering the entire home page of the website, which can
potentially irritate users. Recommendation. To enhance user experience, it is
advisable to refrain from filling the entire home page with a caution sign. Instead, it is
recommended to confine the warning to a specific section or element that requires
immediate attention.

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INTRODUCTION
The Passport Seva Website is an important platform for passport applications across
India. Almost every citizen of India would at least once visit the website. Having such a
huge user base, improving the user experience (UX) of the Passport Seva website is
crucial for enhancing efficiency and user satisfaction.
The Indian Passport Seva website is operated and maintained by the Ministry of
External Affairs, Government of India. It serves as the primary online portal for
passport-related services, offering a user-friendly interface for various processes such as
passport applications, renewals, and more. The website is designed to provide efficient
and accessible services to Indian citizens, streamlining the passport application and
issuance process. The Passport Seva Program in India was launched on 25 June 2010.
Through heuristics evaluation, I hope to provide insights on how to improve the
usability of Indian Passport Seva website in providing issuance, and renewal of
passports for Indian citizens and to improve the users experience for all the Indian
citizen so that the delivery of the process is effective. In this study, I hope to answer all
the following questions:
 What heuristics are being violated? How are they violated and with what
severity?
 What recommendations can we give for each evaluation?
 What heuristics are being adhered to?
Heuristics evaluation are cheap, fast and easy to use method that can identify usability
issues in a user interface. I hope to identify some critical issues provide some useful
recommendations and also share some good findings where Indian Passport Seva
website is doing well.

METHODS
Scope of the Evaluation
Since the website offers limited tasks, I decided to evaluate all the task and services
provided by Indian Passport Seva Website. Specifically, the task is:

 Online Appointment Scheduling

 Passport Application
 Online Payment
 Check Application Status

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Heuristic Used
For this evaluation, I used the heuristics develop by Jakob Nielsen (1994) in the chapter
“Heuristic Evaluation “in Usability Inspection Methods. The heuristics are as follows:
1. Visibility of system status:
• The system should always keep users informed about what is going on,
through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.\

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Consistency and standards:

• Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or
actions mean the same thing.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design:

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 • 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

Individual Heuristic Evaluations

To begin the evaluation, I was conducted an individual heuristic evaluation of the Indian
Passport Seva website. This involved taking multiple passes through the site to
determine where there were issues. The issues were then categorized by the heuristic
from the list above that was violated and the severity of the violation (see Appendix A).

Severity was judged based on a five-point rating scale taken from Nielsen's "Heuristic
Evaluation" chapter, Table 2.3 (1994):

0. I don't agree that this is a usability problem at all

1. Cosmetic problem only need not be fixed unless extra time is available on
project
2. Minor usability problem-fixing this should be given low priority
3. Major usability problem-important to fix, so should be given high priority
4. Usability catastrophe -imperative to fix this before product can be released.

Debrief and Consolidation of Results

Once I completed my individual evaluation, I was tasked with consolidating the results.
To start, I created a list of the heuristics and documented the issues that violated each
specific heuristic.
Upon completing the list of issues (see Appendix B), I assessed it to identify the most
crucial ones. During the review, there were instances where I couldn't reach a
consensus. I decided to mark the issues where I had total agreement as yellow,
indicating primary importance. Issues without a consensus were marked blue, denoting

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secondary importance. I planned to reevaluate these after completing the initial run if I
felt additional items were necessary.
After the initial evaluation of the list, I identified 10 items of primary importance. Each
item received a severity rating that I agreed upon. The final list included two items rated
with a severity of 0, representing aspects that I considered well-executed by the Indian
Passport Seva Website and deemed important enough to include as "good examples."
Findings and Recommendations
Summary Results
Through the conducted heuristic evaluation of the Indian Passport Seva, I came across
some instances where the site observed Nielsen’s heuristics and also instances where it
violated. Instances, obeyed being consistent with the style and the feel of the website.
When browsing links attached to it, me as user, I still feel on the same website. But there
were several issues in the website where most heuristics where violated. The heuristics
that were mainly violated are: Recognition rather than recall, Visibility of the System
Status, and Aesthetic and Minimalist design.
Key Findings
Finding 1. Password policy is not directly visible to the user and user cannot
view entered password.
Severity: 3
Heuristic Violated: Consistency and Industry Standards and Recognition rather
than recall

The website uses some rules to setup the password. These rules are not displayed
directly on the page, but the user must click a link that opens a dialog box displaying the
password policy.

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Recommendation:

A more feasible and efficient solution would be to provide the password policy
information next to the password field so that the password requirements remain in
front of the user as the user enters the password. Providing a clickable button to toggle
the visibility of the password will help to check if the user has entered the right
password giving more confidence on his actions.

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Finding 2. Browser back button does not work to navigate between pages.
Severity: 1
Heuristic Violated: User control and freedom and Visibility of System Status.
The website does not use browser default back button to navigate to any previously
visited pages. All modern websites make use of browser’s default back button for
navigation. Also, no message is if browser back button should not be used. For instance,
to change the district after selecting it, the user had to navigate to the “Applicant Home”
page and then redo all the process. This may irritate the user. Also, upon selecting the
“district” field value the form automatically gets submitted and the user is directed to
the next page for further information. This takes away the control from the user. If the
user mistakenly chooses the wrong district, then he won’t be able to update it and since
there is no back button to revisit the page and change the form, he will have to restart
the entire process which could be very annoying for most people.

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Recommendation:

Use browser back button same as all the modern websites do for navigation, else provide
a physical back button (specific to the site) to navigate to previous pages. If the website
expects the user to enter the “district” details only once, then they should have provided
a message for user that “You cannot modify the below information”. A button should be
provided so that user can navigate to the next page after he has entered the required
information.

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Finding 3. Repetitive Information resulting in cluttering and reduced
efficiency.
Severity: 4

Heuristic Violated: Aesthetic and Minimalist design

On the home screen, the user can see the page is divided into 2 parts, “Services” and
“Applicant Home”. All the information listed in the right section i.e., under “Applicant
Home” is also displayed in the left section under “Services”. This way of putting up the
information is confusing because when clicking on a link, there is an implicit
assumption that the link in right section will be the correct link and not the one
displayed in the other section. This issue could be a serious problem, especially for new
users resulting in frustration, and difficulties in navigation. The font size is also very
small, and it is difficult to read the information correctly because this view appears to be
cluttered making it challenging for users to navigate and absorb information quickly. It
might cause strain on the user’s eyes and might reduce user’s efficiency to find and
locate information.

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Recommendation:
All this information could be displayed under one heading with the most visited or the
most important links being positioned at the beginning of the list. This way users might
feel easy to find what they need without having to decide between sections. By
displaying all the information(links) under one heading, there will be more room on the
page and so this information could be displayed in a better way with increased font size
and spacing between individual links.

Finding 4. No hint/help provided to understand the meaning of short forms

used.
Severity: 4
Heuristic Violated: Help and Documentation and Match Between System and Real
World.
The website has used some short forms such as “PSK/POPSK/PSLK” without providing
any help to understand the meaning of these terms which may cause confusion for the
user. Use of such unfamiliar text would make it difficult for user to take further actions
and without any provided help the user will have to figure out their meaning by
themself, reducing efficiency and increasing time to complete the task. Also, the “Click
here” links are not easy to identify.

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Recommendation:
A message could be displayed somewhere below the form like “Click here to know more
about PSK/POPSK/PSLK”. This can provide immediate help on unfamiliar terms,
making the user feel confident and in control of their next actions. Users will have more
control over their interactions with the website if clear messages are given to them.

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Finding 5. Finding payment amount and payment status information is
difficult.
Severity: 2
Heuristic Violated: Visibility of System Status and Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
Finding the payment success information is difficult. The font used is very small and the
light green color which is used for success message is undervalued by the red text that is
dominating the screen. Also, the information about the payment amount is missing.

Recommendation:

A more intuitive way of putting the success message could improve readability. A
recommendation would be the use of a green tick icon with a “payment successful”
message and a field showing the amount paid that gives the payment status enhancing
visibility, providing more clarity and confidence to the user about the successful
completion of the payment task. The green tick icon will grab user’s attention allowing
user to quickly identify success status without the need to navigate or search for
information. Displaying payment amount will provide user with the needed critical
information preventing any confusion about transaction status.

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Finding 6. Checking login id is available to user or not and usage of captcha
in login process.

Severity:4

Heuristic Violated: Flexibility and efficiency of use

The website provides user with option to choose login id same as the e-mail id, but what
if user wishes to use a different login, to do that the user has to check the availability.
This is a painful process for some users. Providing captcha during the login process
seems unnecessary and annoying.

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Recommendation: The users should be given the flexibility of choosing whatever login

id they desire without having to check with the system. Instead of using captcha for

logging in the website should use email-based login through OTP to verify the

authenticity of user.

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Finding 7. After filling up the password and confirm password section no
notification is provided whether password entered is incorrect.

Severity:3

Heuristic Violated: Error Prevention and Flexibility and efficiency of use

After filling out each section then clicking on the register button can the user know that

the password entered in incorrect. This wastes the time of the user.

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Recommendation: A “show password” and “hide password” on should be placed

beside the password section for user to check the authenticity of password entered. The

interface should be designed such that the user gets notified just after entering the

incorrect password rather than having to complete the process.

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Finding 8. The color scheme used in the website and huge banner space.

Severity:4

Heuristic Violated: Recognition rather than recall and Aesthetic and minimalist

design

The website uses a strange color scheme for new user registration and existing users.

Normally we find the color green for “new user registration” as it can be associated

with new beginning for instance and color red indicates as sense of warning. I found it

hard to understand the color schemes used for depicting such menu. Another issue is the

large banner with irrelevant information to the right of the page.

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Recommendation: Providing a color scheme that suits the users and minimizes the

usability errors while performing any action. The website should focus on the providing

elements to the interface that allows users to focus on their primary goal.

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Finding 9. The absence of icons in quick guides for obtaining a passport

creates a misalignment between users' expectations and the system's

presentation.

Severity:3

Heuristic Violated: Match between system and the real world

The lack of visual cues, such as icons, might make it challenging for users to quickly
grasp the steps involved in the passport application process. Users may face difficulties in
translating their real-world understanding of obtaining a passport to the digital interface.

Recommendation: Identify the essential steps in the passport application process

that users need to follow. Ensure the icons are clear, visually intuitive, and easily

associated with the corresponding actions or information.

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Finding 10. The caution sign covering the entire home page of the website,

which can potentially irritate users.

Severity:3

Heuristic Violated: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

The excessive presence of caution signs dominating the homepage could potentially
frustrate users, hindering their experience by creating an overwhelming and irritating
visual environment.

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Recommendation: Avoid covering the entire home page with a caution sign. Instead,
limit the size and placement of the warning to a specific section or element that requires
attention. Use subtle visual cues or icons to indicate the presence of a cautionary
message without overwhelming the user. Ensure that the design of the caution sign is
visually appealing and not overly intrusive. Use colors and icons that convey urgency
without causing unnecessary alarm.

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Summary of the Findings

Discussion

The Indian Passport Seva Heuristic Rating Severity Rating (HRSR) is a tool used to
evaluate the user experience of India's passport issuance system. It assesses factors like
feedback, help, metaphor, navigation, consistency, prevention, memory, efficiency,
design, and recovery. Feedback helps users understand application status, while
metaphor and navigation ensure intuitiveness. Consistency is emphasized, with design
elements uniform across the system. Prevention measures identify potential issues
early, while memory and efficiency ensure data security. Design and recovery focus on
creating an appealing interface and robust recovery mechanisms. The HRSR aims to
optimize the passport application process, enhancing customer satisfaction and
fostering trust and efficiency.

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Conclusion

The heuristic evaluation of the Indian Passport Seva website revealed that there were
some issues in the design that are important to be fixed to enhance the user’s
experience. Some of the issues that violated heuristics were issues that had been
determined in previous evaluations of the site. The primary importance that we
determined; the following changes should be made for the next versions of the website:

1.The icons and buttons must be clear and consistent.

2. Errors must be addressed wisely.

3. Homepage must be organized.

4. Provide detailed and easy to follow instructions for each step of the application
process to minimize errors.

5. Improve real time updates on the status of passport application for better
transparency.

Implementing this changes and addressing these aspects can contribute to making the
Indian Passport Seva website more user friendly, efficient and accessible to a broader
range of applicants. Continuous feedback and iterative improvements are essential for
maintaining and enhancing the quality of online service.

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