Using a Dynamic Model to Simulate the Heuristic Evaluation of Usability

Among usability inspection methods, heuristic evaluation, or expert evaluation, is considered the most used and well-known usability evaluation method. The number of evaluators and their expertise are essential aspects that affect the quality of the evaluation, the cost that its application generates, and the time that it is necessary to spend. This paper presents a dynamic simulation model to analyze how different configurations of evaluator team have an effect upon the results of the heuristic evaluation method. One of the main advantages of using a dynamic simulation model is the possibility of trying out different decisions before carrying them out, and change them during the simulation of the evaluation process.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia QSimTest TIN2007-67843-C06 03Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843-C06-0

When the going gets tough the beautiful get going: aesthetic appeal facilitates task performance.

The current studies examined the effect of aesthetic appeal on performance. According to one hypothesis, appeal would lead to overall decrements or enhancements in performance [e.g. Sonderegger & Sauer, (Applied Ergonomics, 41, 403-410, 2010)]. Alternatively, appeal might influence performance only in problem situations, such as when the task is difficult [e.g. Norman, (2004)]. The predictions of these hypotheses were examined in the context of an icon search-and-localisation task. Icons were used because they are well-defined stimuli and pervasive to modern everyday life. When search was made difficult using visually complex stimuli (Experiment 1), or abstract and unfamiliar stimuli (Experiment 2), icons that were appealing were found more quickly than their unappealing counterparts. These findings show that in a low-level visual processing task, with demand characteristics related to appeal eliminated, appeal can influence performance, especially under duress