Usability Evaluation
Using Discount Usability Methods to Evaluate Brightspace
Objectives
Understand the pain points of students who use Brightspace
Assess the usability and user experience of Brightspace
Create recommendations for Brightspace that address users' deepest pain points
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Heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method in which evaluators assess a user interface based on a set of predefined heuristics or guidelines to identify and prioritize usability issues.
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A cognitive walkthrough is a usability evaluation method where evaluators systematically simulate the steps a user would take in interacting with a system to identify potential usability issues from the user's perspective.
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Generating recommendations based on personal experience and identifying pain points through the cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluation.
Timeframe: 2 weeks
My Role: UX Researcher
Methods: Heuristic Evaluation and Cognitive Walkthrough
Tools: Figma
Top 3 Heuristic Issues
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors.
You need to complete two-factor authentication in order to log into Brightspace. When it comes to error messages, this is one of the most problematic areas. Identical error messages appear if you typed your login incorrectly, your authentication was not completed in a timely manner, or if Brightspace is offline. Because users are unable to identify the error that occurred, they must verify themselves by doing the activity again or by checking I-tap.
Accessibility and Inclusion
Users who might have limitations can use Brightspace with accommodations. Any platform that students use frequently needs to have this, especially. Its accessibility issue stems from the fact that you need to know how to open a specific tab in order to allow those accommodations. This is a problem because the lack of convenience when finding the tool makes it less accessible and therefore less inclusive.
Help and Documentation
On Brightspace, there is a location where you may find assistance. For every platform, this is critical and necessary. The issue with the assistance is that it comes from Purdue rather than Brightspace. This makes it less likely to be utilized because it opens a new tab and requires the user to do yet another step.
Cognitive Walkthrough
Scenario
Erika's communication professor has assigned her to create a discussion post as part of her homework. She has until 11:59 p.m. to complete this and turn in an assignment for her horticulture class.
Recomendations
Recommendation for Pain Points
Suggestions I made based on the problems that I found through both the heuristic evaluation and the cognitive walk-through.
