Evaluating interactive digital television applications through usability heuristics

Abstract

RESUMENLa Televisión Digital Interactiva (TDi) es considerada como la convergencia de la televisión y las tecnologías de la computación. La evaluación de usabilidad para aplicaciones basadas en tecnologías emergentes trae nuevos retos. La principal característica de la TDi es que los usuarios pueden interactuar con las aplicaciones; de esta manera la usabilidad es el principal aspecto a considerar cuando se diseñan aplicaciones de TDi. Las investigaciones actuales normalmente están enfocadas sobre las aplicaciones de TDi desde un punto de vista técnico, y no desde un enfoque centrado en el usuario. Hay una necesidad de nuevos métodos de evaluación de usabilidad o, por lo menos, utilizar de nuevas formas los métodos de evaluación existentes. Un conjunto de heurísticas de usabilidad específicas ha sido definido y validado, con el objetivo de ayudar en la evaluación de usabilidad de aplicaciones de TDi. También se ha propuesto una lista de verificación para ser usada al momento de aplicar las heurísticas de usabilidad.Palabras clave: Televisión digital interactiva, aplicaciones, usabilidad, heurísticas, lista de verificación. ABSTRACT Interactive Digital Television (iDT) is considered as the convergence of television and computer technologies. Usability evaluation for applications based on emerging information technology brings new challenges.The main iDT feature is that the user may interact with the application; therefore usability should be a main concern when designing iDT applications. Current research usually focuses on iDT applications from a technical point of view, rather than a user-centered approach. There is a need for new usability evaluation methods or at least for the use of traditional evaluations in novel ways. A set of specific usability heuristics was defined and validated, in order to help the usability evaluations of iDT applications. A usability checklist to be used when applying iDT heuristics is also proposed.

Establishing usability heuristics for heuristics evaluation in a specific domain: Is there a consensus?

“…The reported findings from the 17 studies suggest that usability heuristics for specific domains found more usability issues than using existing heuristics that are more general in nature (Berry 2003, Pimentel 2013, Solano et al 2013). However, following further investigation, the results are shown to be inconclusive.…”

“…It was found that this was likely caused by evaluators' tendency to ignore them as they were seen to be less problematic in comparison to other issues (Muñoz & Chalegre 2012, Inostroza et al 2012, Neto & Pimentel 2013, Solano et al 2013). There was only three studies reported comparison related to the time taken to perform usability evaluation.…”

“…Some studies that provided long descriptions also adopted a more formal approach in which a certain format was followed (e.g. Rusu, et al 2010, Muñoz et al 2011, Inostroza, et al 2012a, Diaz et al 2013, Solano et al 2013. In other studies, instead of providing a lengthy description for each heuristic, checklists were introduced (e.g.…”

“…66 Solano et al (2013) 14 heuristics were proposed with each heuristic contain specific information on what it covers. A checklist was created to support the usability heuristics.…”

User Experience Evaluations: Challenges for Newcomers

“…Frameworks of usability evaluation, including appropriate methods or combination of methods should be established, in order to get more effective and efficient evaluations on new interaction paradigms. We proposed specific usability heuristics and associated checklists for transactional web applications [20], touchscreen-based mobile applications [21], grid computing applications [22], interactive digital television [23], and virtual worlds [24]. We also developed a cultural -oriented usability heuristics proposal [25].…”