Obstacles to Option Setting: Initial Results With a Heuristic Walkthrough Method

By: Silvia Gabrielli and Anthony Jameson (2009)

In T. Gross, J. Gulliksen, P. Kotzé, L. Oestreicher, P. Palanque, R. Prates, & M. Winckler (Eds.), Human-computer interaction - INTERACT 2009, 12th IFIP TC 13 International Conference (pp. 400–403). Berlin: Springer.

Abstract: This short paper is the first step in a line of research that aims to deepen understanding of the difficulties that users often have with option setting interfaces: those parts of a system that allow the user to set parameters that influence the systemůs behavior and appearance. On the basis of a theoretical distinction of three things that users may fail to understand about a given option, we introduce a simple variant of the heuristic walkthrough method that helps evaluators to uncover likely obstacles. We give a quantitative and qualitative overview of the obstacles found through the application of this heuristic walkthrough to parts of four popular applications.

BibTeX entry:

@incollection{GabrielliJ09Interact,
  year = {2009},
  author = {{Gabrielli}, Silvia and {Jameson}, Anthony},
  editor = {{Gross}, T. and {Gulliksen}, J. and {Kotz\’{e}}, P. and {Oestreicher}, L. and {Palanque}, P. and {Prates}, R.O. and {Winckler}, M.},
  title = {Obstacles to Option Setting: Initial Results With a Heuristic Walkthrough Method},
  booktitle = {Human-computer interaction - {INTERACT} 2009, 12th {IFIP} {TC} 13 {I}nternational {C}onference},
  address = {Berlin},
  publisher = {Springer},
  pages = {400--403}}