A brief high-level heuristic evaluation of Media Space
A little background
Media Space is a online workspace built for the collaboration, innovation and communication of ideas through a closed social network. It is the brainchild of the Master in Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington. An alpha version launched in the spring 0f 2009; a beta version launched this fall.
High-level analysis scope/disclaimer
For the purpose of this brief evaluation, I used mainly used the home page, welcome page, top level navigation and the second-level pages to review the site. In addition, I only identified 1-2 problems under each heuristic usability principal.
About heuristic evaluations
Heuristic evaluations are quick and dirty usability evaluations that usually involve a small group of reviewers using a series of ten usability principals as a framework. The following heuristic evaluation principals were created by the granddaddy of usability, Jakob Nielsen.
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Heuristic evaluation of Media Space – general observations
Media Space is clearly a work-in-progress. There is still a lot to do to aid the process of collaboration and to the identification of ideas. The founding designers/developers of Media Space worked hard to identify a different approach to social networking by putting ideas up front, rather than people. However, the process of collaboration is hard to follow.
I would like to note Media Space is an exciting and interesting concept, but a complicated one to implement.
Heuristic evaluation – using the ten principals for user interface design
Media Space home page
1. Visibility of System Status – “Where am I?” and “Where can I go next?”
The home page has the login information prominently displayed, clearly indicating that this is the action the user should do first. However, registration for new users is not as prominent and the assumption is that the user is a returning one. (Also, for this returning user, it was not identified that this is a “new” beta version of Media Space and that I needed to re-credential myself in order to login.)
The welcome text is clearly written and above the fold.
Examples of work helps the user understand what sort of collaboration and innovation projects have been done using this website. Sub-heads identifying these projects are unclear — for example, “SIFF-FinalStrategy” would be better understood if the header were “Social Media Proposal” or even “Media Proposal.”
Media Space welcome page
After login, the user is taken to a welcome screen with a large area to start the process of idea collaborating. This field almost appears to be a design element, and not a text field. A list of existing ideas or subjects would be helpful to start the process. This idea starter is a bit of a misnomer, since it appears to be mainly a version of microblogging with a 140 character limit. The display of ideas is by date and without any other filtering.
2. Match Between the System and the Real World
Since this is a new concept for a website, some innovation with terminology has to take place. “Ideas” are the product in this website, and collaborating or identifying similar ideas are part of the process towards making the website successful. On the other hand, having a section titled “pages” just invites confusion as to what could be — Additional web pages on the site? Your friends pages? Other favorite other websites (but… that’s probably what bookmarks are, right?)
- 3. User control and freedom
There is no “home” button to help with users should they lose their navigation. Clicking on the logo can sometimes boot the user back to the login page, rather than the welcome page (the site probably times users out for security, however, it is a bit startling to have to re-credential.) And the top level navigation stays static after selection – it does not identify where the user is in the site. By having rollover and status changes on the navigation (by changing color, for example), a user could more easily browse the site.
4. Consistency and standards
Some terminology is standard but some is not. For example, the first navigational link is “About Us”, which is highly standard on any website. On the other hand, the term “docollab” used for the fifth navigation label was unknown to me. Using the full term “Document Library” or “Document Collaboration” would make the section understandable.
There are too many top-level right navigation areas. The best number on a website should be somewhere between 3-6 and there are 16 on Media Space! Combining some of these would help reduce confusion by users on what to do and where to go next. One combination could be”Friends,” “Groups” and “Members” could be combined and certainly some of the media sections (photos, videos) in a different group to make the navigation more streamlined.
Also, it’s unclear if there is any underlying organization to the top-level navigation.
It appears that the lower-level navigation has some inconsistencies as well. Some of this may be the result of 3rd-party plug-ins that use their own navigation treatment (see the “Discuss” area of the site.)
5. Error prevention
One way to reduce error and confusion would be to provide explanatory text on the introductory page to each section, especially in this early beta version of Media Space.
6. Recognition rather than recall
Having the navigation buttons change would help with helping the user identify where they were at all times. Simple breadcrumb navigation would also be extremely helpful in helping users track their paths through the site.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
Despite the fact that the site is password protected and supposed to encourage collaborative work, contextual content does not appear. In the next version, have the user’s projects, blogs, updates from friends/feed show up on the welcome page right after login.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
The site is pretty minimalist as is and does not contain much of extraneous design elements. Increasing the size of the well or center section, would keep landscape-oriented photos from jutting underneath the right navigation.
The design uses a contemporary, appealing color and font. Layout is institutional and simple. Rotating photos on the home page of students, while showing differences in age and ethnic demographics, are all of men. Photography is not present on lower-level pages as part of the design.
The default font is small.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages are prominently displayed during login, along with plausible suggestions on the reasons for the errors.
10. Help and documentation
None found. Having a step-by-step instruction manual, as well as a written article on the expectations of the users of the site, could increase participation.
Conclusion
There are several easily-identifiable areas for improvement on Media Space. Suggestions would include improving the navigation top-and-lower level design, reducing and combining top-level areas, and adding explanatory text on top-level pages for each section.
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