Human Factors in
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​Engineering II Project (usatoday.com):

Team members:  Ananda Wibowo, Ana Galiana, Andrew Sauer, Michael Thiemel, Mike Vankoski
Location: West Lafayette, IN
Duration: 4 weeks

Purpose: Improving existing websites by detecting design errors and proposing a re-design

Methods: Heuristic Evaluation, Cognitive Walkthrough, Comparative Analysis

Project milestones:
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• Find user population for the cognitive walkthrough
• Come up with tasks for the cognitive walkthrough
• Observe users while they are completing the designed tasks
• Determine competitors for the comparative analysis
• Identify key dimensions to compare
• Identify design violations from Heuristic Evaluation
• Propose a redesign from data collected

Findings:

• Identified 4 design principle violations including:
  • Display Layout
  • Strive for consistency
  • Easy Reversal of Actions
  • Shortcuts for frequent users
• Users expressed frustration towards:
  
  • search engine
    
  • advertisements
    
  • articles navigations
    
  • general layout