Repose

Heuristic evaluation for the website of manhattan-based therapy practice, Repose.

Overview

Project Type 

UX heuristic evaluation

Duration 

May 2022

Team Members

This was a solo project.

The Problem

Repose is a Manhattan-based therapy practice with an informational website for its services. The website was evaluated to assess its usability, to identify issues, and determine the priority in which they should be addressed.

The Solution

Significant usability issues were identified and next steps were suggested.

Process

User Groups & Tasks

Primary and secondary users, including potential tasks users would perform, were identified for the product. With users and tasks in mind, I was better able to evaluate the UX functionality of the website.

Defining Usability

The International Standards Organization's definition of usability from Patrick W Jordan's An Introduction to Usability was used to define usability for this project. Usability is defined as "the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in particular environments".  Using this definition, criteria to evaluate usability were identified. The criteria included Jordan's principles of usable design, principles from The Four Pleasures framework, features of website credibility, and design principles. These criteria were used to conduct a holistic evaluation of usability.

Evaluation

A first pass of browser and mobile versions was conducted to get a preliminary feel, and a secondary, more focused pass was used to evaluate functionality and design based on the usability criteria. The evaluation focused on useability principles of cognition (guessability, learnability, re-usability, feedback, prioritization, explicitness), affect/emotion (social, psychological, ideological), credibility (design look, information design, usefulness of information, tone of content), and content & visual design (proximity, alignment, repetition, contrast). Both the browser and mobile versions of the site were evaluated.

Severity Rating

All areas were given a severity rating out of 4 based on the severity rating scale from Nielsen Norman Group.  This rating is used to identify which problems should receive priority when resolving product issues.

Outcome & Results

Seven main issues were discovered and ranked in order of severity. Missing site functionality, the difficulty of navigation, and an overwhelming volume of information were identified as the main useability issues. These issues were the most important to focus on because they had the greatest impact on the user's ability to complete tasks. Recommendations for addressing these issues were suggested.

Rye | Bridge | Showcation | Pitcher | Repose