Tabbed interface style 4 heuristic evaluation - burgvan/wet-boew GitHub Wiki
We evaluated Style 4 of the tabbed interface plugin against Nielsen's usability heuristics to identify potential usability problems that should be tested with users.
| ID | Heuristic Violated | Usability Issue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consistency and Standards | The image does not look clickable . The image is flat, the text in the image does not contain action words, and the text around the image does not provide any indication that the image may be clickable. Clickable elements normally resemble a link or a button. |
| 2 | It might not be obvious to users that tabs are clickable in some visual styles . The gradient style used on the demo page [link] does not match common styles used for buttons and links. Conversely, styles that use standard underlined text (indicating a link) or create the visual effect of flat element protruding from the background make use of common associations. | |
| 3 | There is nothing to visually associate the image with the tabs that control it. When other elements are present above or below, it is not clear that the tabs and the image are part of the same interface element (see image below). | |
| 4 | The plugin looks like a vertical navigation menu . This could confuse users who may expect the tabs to behave as links and take them to another page instead of changing the image displayed above. | |
| 5 | The image looks like an advertisement. Users may not see it (see banner blindness), or click on it, for that reason. | |
| 6 | Flexibility and Efficiency of Use | Two clicks are required to reach desired page where 1 click would have been sufficient . There is no way for the user to get to the desired page directly by clicking the tab-description. |
| 7 | Minimalist and Aesthetic Design | The small image size makes it hard for the image to convey additional information that could not be contained in the tab label. In observed usage the image and tab label text has been identical. When this redundancy occurs it should be justified by site goals. |
| 8 | Visibility of System Status | The tab associated with the image that is currently displayed is visually distinct from other tabs. But, when there are many tabs, it may be difficult to make that association for the tabs that are further below the image as the tabs are visually distant from the image to which they are related. |
Conclusions: Potential usability problems exist with the tabbed interface style 4. Usability testing should be conducted to verify these potential problems and to gauge the severity of potential usability issues. https://github.com/wet-boew/wet-boew/wiki/Tabbed-interface-style-4-test-plan