Expert reviews are a method of evaluating user interface design. They provide an efficient way of developing insight into usability problems, but should not by themselves supplement other methods of evaluation.[1] Expert reviewers should consist of two types of experts: Domain/Application experts and User-Interface Design experts.[2]
Expert-Review Methods
- Heuristic Evaluation - The expert(s) check the interface to determine if it violates any of the rules specified in the design heuristics, such as the eight golden rules. This method has become quite popular because it doesn't take very much time to complete and requires only a small number of experts.[2]
- Guidelines Review - The expert reviewer(s) check the interface for conformance with the organizations design guidelines. Because organizational guidelines can consist of hundreds or even thousands of items, this process can take from days to weeks to completely review.[2]
- Cognitive Walkthrough - A group of experts navigate through a series of typical tasks that the user may perform to determine if any areas of the interface are unclear or confusing. During this type of review, it is important that the experts have a clear understanding of who the targeted users are so they can determine areas that may be problematic to the users.[2]
- Consistency Inspection - The experts check for interface-wide consistency in language, fonts, colors, layout, logos, etc. There are tools available to automate this process.[2]
- Formal Usability Inspection - The expert reviewers, designers, and managers involved hold a meeting to discuss the interface, screen by screen. The experts give their input while the designers are allowed justify/defend their design choices based on previous usability tests.[2]
Assignment 2 - Table Charlie
For assignment two, table charlie will examine how expert reviews might have been used in the interface design of the WTAMU IRB System.
During the early or late phases of interface design the design team would have asked the two types of expert reviewer to evaluate the user interface. The domain/application expert would have been a IRB staff member who was very familiar with the current paper based review process. The user-interface design expert would be a usability expert with no ties or bias with the project.
