Mar 29, 2021 | by Budi Tanrim
Inspecting interface design — Overview
When I led the team in Bukalapak, I’d find myself reviewing people’s work. The designer will bring me the prototype, and I’ll go through it, “Why would people want to use your feature?” I asked, “There is no clear selling point on this landing page.” Then I’ll make a few suggestions.
That is known as a heuristic evaluation. I evaluate the work using a few rules of thumb—cognitive, perception, and behavioral pattern. Sometimes, when the designer brought a few explorations, I’d help them to inspect. “As a user, I’d need to make a mental calculation here,” I said, “have you consider displaying the calculation for the user?”
But is this approach actually valid? Could I possibly make an accurate prediction on the potential usability problems?
Besides heuristic evaluation, like I explained above. The other popular approach is to test the interface with the real users—known as user testing. The idea is simple, you put the interface in front of the users and ask them to complete the task. When they have trouble completing a task, you note that as a usability problem.
Here’s the question: Which one is better?
Let’s discuss that tomorrow.
Hi, this blog is no longer active. I move to substack. You can subscribe below or go to newsletter.buditanrim.co
