SQA Report: Website Evaluation

Group Members

Umar Sufyan
Ali Hassan
Mohsin Mushtaq
Amir Sohail

http://bedrive.vebto.com/

Report of 14th March 2018

Abstract
In this study we i ntroduce the various sets of usability evaluation and design guidelines
available today. Then, we apply a subset of those evaluation guidelines to this file sharing
website, and attempt to offer an alternative design that covers the deficiencies f ound i n our
evaluation.

1 Introduction
The site is intended for use by the general public, the purpose of the site is to:
• Allows the user to create your own self-hosted file sharing and hosting website
• Provide an impressive feature set that rivals and even surpasses current industry leaders
such as dropbox or google drive
• Provide users Dashboard is filled with many features to manage and preview their files
and folders
• Provide a sharing to social networks or email, drag and drop, favorites, trash, password,
links etc
• Offer the users multiple tiers of storage space for your chosen price per month, It can also
be fully disabled as well, if you do not need it
This report presents the findings and recommendations arising from the evaluation.

Website Usability Guideline (Methadology)

Users should be able to learn the the basic navigation options of a web page and to find their
desired content easily. They also should be able to reach such content in an efficient and quick
way, and be able to remember the navigation options if they happen to return to the website after
a while. Users should also be guided to follow the correct links until they reach their desired
content, and if they happen to make mistakes during this process, they should be able to recover
by going back to their previous location easily. Ultimately, the whole web experience should be
pleasant and more satisfactory compared to any existing alternatives.

Usability Heuristics For User Interface Design

1. Visibility of system status 6. Recognition rather than recall

2. Match between system and real world 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
(Mapping)
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
3. User control and freedom
9. Users can recognize and recover from er-
4. Consistency and standards rors

5. Error prevention 10. Documentation and Help

1
 Problem Found Violated heuristic Severity Suggested improvement
Download time is not Visibility of sys- High Use a scrolling bar for repre-
indicated tem status senting the time left till the
end of download

Table 1: A sample of heuristic evaluation findings, as shown by [Matera et al., 2006]

Case Study
In the coming sections we are going evaluate the following website:

• beDrive, http://bedrive.vebto.com/

Heuristic Evaluation

We based our study here on the principles of [Nielsen, 2005].

Users visiting bedrive are firstly Register or Login now to upload, backup, manage and access your files
on any device, from anywhere, free. We found this a little bit confusing to new visitors and time
comsuming to Register or login and then find the uploaded files and their links to share that
files.

Violated heuristics Problem found Suggested improvements

Home page
Documentation / Aes- Logo and circular picture on top are Combine the logo and picture,
thetic taking too much space. Tag-line is or just use the logo. Change
forcing to login or register the site to
tag-line with a more descriptive
upload things. one.
Aesthetic No clear contrast between top menu Increase text size and follow
and the title bar. Users overlook it. the conventions of menus look
and feel.
Error prevention Clicking on picture on top takes user Should be click-able in all pages
again to homepage. but homepage.

Mapping / Visibility There are two versions of the site
(user, admin) and there is no small but-
ton to switch between them, that is
not visible. Users cannot easily tell
which version they are in now.
Aesthetic List of events taking too much space
and is distracting visitors from their
main goal.
Convention there is no footer menu and Button-
like items in footer-menu are not .
Mapping / Recogni- Users’ choices are mainly based on
tion rather than Recall price, size of storage etc. This
confuses new users and does not
provide any info about storage capacities
and packages and thier price.
Documentation / Aes- Descriptions for accommodation op-
thetic tions is not clear
2
Only one version of the site is
needed.
Replace it with a way to search
for accommodations and/or a
list of recommended ones.
Change the style of those items.
Two (maximum three) options
in the menu, combined with a
better search facility, will be
more useful. like there will be
price navigation option , and a
search box
Better description here. Also
remove photos in menu, since
they are tiny and not helpful to
foreigners.
Design

Using the feedback provided by our users, we were able construct the following use-cases in
order to build an enhanced design afterwards:

Home Page - Use-case 1

User Intention System Response
← List supported languages
Choose website language →
← Change website language
← Present search box
Enter search query (number of →
storage space per price, price per storage package
and storage ranges) ← Display results
Search results by date, ascendingly →
← Display ordered results
Choose one of the displayed results →
← Display more details about chosen result
and membership options
purchase a membership →
← Display memvership confirmation

For some users, having a list of recommended accommodations might be more convenient than
searching. It also helps new visitors to understand the main purpose of the site. Hence, we
should also have the following use-case.

Purchase a membership - Use-case 1a

User Intention System Response
← Display recommended membership
Choose one of the displayed results → packages
←
Display more details about chosen result
Buy a membership → and membership options
←
Display membership confirmation

Based on the use-cases, we ended with the homepage design shown in figure 1. The page should
have the following two core components:

• List of recommended accommodations: Each membership has a brief description, price,

storage capaciy and membership duration and a way for advanced users to view its demo
for a few days.

– The Users should also be able to upload and manage the files.
We recommend an impressive feature set that rivals and even surpasses current industry
leaders such as dropbox or google drive.

3
• Search box: Visitors can search for files by file name.

– Advanced search options: This should include options such as date range, and
category, title and tage.

Finally, after recomendations the presented design should be subject to iterative evaluations and
improvements in the future.