Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic Evaluation
com
www.frys.com is a website for an electronics store and ISP (Internet Service Provider). The main function of this website is
to get customers acquainted with the brand “Fry’s” and by doing so customers may consider buying its electronics product
or using its ISP service.
This evaluation assigns a severity rating to each issue that represents the frequency and impact the problem. The most severe
issues are listed first within each section. For plain text’s sake, illustrations are listed in the appendix.
High Throughout Color Combination is obtrusive (see homepage on page 1) Agreeable colors should be selected and carefully arranged in order to
The arbitrary combination of red, black and yellow looks obtrusive and both represent the company’s logo color and to achieve a harmonious
is lacking in harmony, and therefore is likely to inhibit consumers from outlook.
buying.
Medium Homepage & Pictures are poorly designed & placed (see homepage on page 1) Create a better association between icons and functions. The colors of
“Contact Both the map and the explosive picture in the homepage fail to convey the map and the above words should be balanced, and words number
Fry's a professional image to people. And on the page after clicking on should be reduced for aesthetic purposes.
Electronics” “Contact Fry's Electronics” on the left, the little yellow logo appears in
page very low resolution.
Medium Throughout Font Size are not consistent (see appendix pic 1) Unify font and font sizes.
Fonts in some pages are small and pose difficulty on reading.
Medium “Shop online” Radically different website styles (see appendix pic 2) Unify the styles of the two websites.
link When clicking on outpost.com, which is Fry’s online shopping
website, people would find the two websites radically different,
although they represent the same company.
High Homepage “Shopping online” is hidden (see homepage on page 1) Put the outpost.com sign in a more conspicuous position.
This poses great difficulty for users who are looking for product
information, making it difficult to find how to shop online.
High Throughout Two vertical navigation bars (see homepage on page 1) Replace the two bars with one vertical navigation bar and horizontal
The two vertical navigation bars look redundant and have the potential flying-out menus.
to interfere with navigation. It is inconsistent with the expectation of
one vertical navigation bar and horizontal flying-out menus.
High “Manage Link is broken Make sure this page can be displayed.
your ISP Sometimes it works when clicking on “manage your ISP account”, but
account” several visits turns out to be “page cannot be displayed.”
area
Medium Homepage No links with the map Provide a link which leads to “features” when clicking on the map, and
The map and the red words on it give users a perception that it can be save the space in the homepage to provide more information about Fry’s
clicked for more information, but it turns out to be deceptive. Though Electronics.
the relevant information is provided below, it is not as eye-catching as
the map that users tend to ignore it at the first glance.
Low “ISP Access “Back to top” link not available (see appendix pic 3) Add “Back to top” link.
Numbers” Cause navigation inefficiency and inconvenience.
page
Medium Homepage Menu categories mixed up (see homepage on page 1) Reshuffle the menu. Some of them such as “Fry's Webmail” and
The left menu is mixed up and some is redundant. “Contact the Fry's ISP” can be put into one category: customer service.
For “retail store” menu, “contact” link should be put at the bottom.
Medium “Fry’s ISP Information packed within one page ( see Fry’s electronics FAQ Put all questions at the top, each with link which leads to answers and
FAQ” page page on page 1) relevant information below. Change the font size of those questions.
Too much information in the same page; users would scroll down to
look for information. The left side questions’ font is too small.
Medium “ISP Service Extended use of Capital letters is counterproductive (see Replace all caps with upper/lowercase. Keep the font and font size style
Contract”& appendix pic 4) consistent within the page and with other pages.
“Acceptable Overuse of capital letters poses difficulty for users to read, though
Use Policy they may be important. The style is not consistent.
“page
Low Contact User-unfriendly pop-up dialogs (see appendix pic 5) Relevant information in the pop-ups should be placed elsewhere. Avoid
information Unfriendly dialogs pop up when clicking on “Contact Fry’s the presence of pop-up.
area Electronics”, “Contact Fry’s ISP” and “Dial-up Signup Form” on the left
side of screen.
High Contact Contact information dispersed & inadequate Put customer service email, phone number and feedback form in one
information Users may not be able to find customer service email, phone number “contact us” page.
page and feedback form within one “contact us” page when clicking on
“contact Fry’s electronics” or “Contact ISP”. They are spread around.
High Fry's Stores Customer service confusing (see appendix pic 7) Delete the first question on Fry's Stores FAQ page. Replace it on
FAQ page The statement that given email address will not directly connect users “contact” page.
to Fry’s store may lead to users losing patience.
Low “contact Fry's Link is not evidently available Create a direct link for customers feedback form.
ISP” pop-up Users would not easily find the link to customers feedback form as
dialogs indicated in the pop-up dialogs when clicking on “Contact the Fry's
ISP”.
Low “Manage No “back” link (see appendix pic 6) Display “back” button.
your ISP There is no “back” link when access is denied after clicking on
account” “Manage your ISP account” and choosing “no” or putting in wrong
area login information.
High Throughout Tone of language neither vivid nor attractive Promotional language strategy should be employed. Add some graphic
The tone of language in this website is not compelling; it’s more like a description.
government report, and may not attract users’ attention.
Medium Fry’s ISP area Jargon Put the full name Internet Service Provider in a conspicuous position.
The ISP acronym is not explained in anywhere. Users may need ISP Explain to users what “Force password” means.
service, but they might not know what ISP is. “Force password” in
sign-up page is not explained.
Low Throughout Redundancy Delete this question. Polish the language of this website to make it
Needless information overload, eg. in “Contact Fry’s Electronics” concise.
page, the last question “would you like a response?” is unnecessary.
In general, this heuristic evaluation of www.frys.com reveals that the website lacks attractiveness and credibility that a sales
website is supposed to possess. Its interface design looks unappealing and obtrusive. Navigation in this website is
inconvenient and time-consuming. Information is also inappropriately arranged and displayed. Functions are not completely
realized and language is confusing and redundant. There is a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, we would not
recommend this website to customers before great improvement is made.
Issue: Fonts in some pages are small and pose difficulty on reading. Issue: Radically different website styles
Recommendation: Unify font and font sizes. Recommendation: Unify the styles of all web pages.
Pic 3. “ISP Acess Numbers” page Pic 4. “Acceptable use policy” page
Issue: “Back-to-top” link not available; navigation inconvenience. Issue: Capitalized spelling is counterproductive.
Recommendation: Add the link. Recommendation: Replace capitalized spelling with lowercase.