To review the usability of Mississauga.ca, a heuristic evaluation was conducted using Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics as its guideline. Several areas of improvement were then identified, each accompanied by recommendations in the form of revised interface screens.
This project was completed as a course requirement for the Usability Assessment course.
Mississauga is a city in Ontario, 27.7 kilometers away from Toronto. Meanwhile, mississauga.ca is a website created by the City of Mississauga as a centralized location for information. The website caters toward multiple user groups, such as: residents, newcomers, tourists, and others. It is designed to be a one-stop solution for questions and inquiries related to the City of Mississauga.
The project is conducted to discover achievable improvements to the Mississauga's website, specifically in its usability.
Heuristic evaluation method was chosen to answer the research questions above. To evaluate the Mississauga website, I utilized design guidelines based on Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics. Throughout the evaluation, I assumed the persona of a Mississauga newcomer. Listed below are the goals and its respective tasks that helped me analyze the website through the lens of the users.
Goal #1 - Find information about what I need to do to bring my dog with me to Mississauga:
Goal #2 - Apply for a job posted on the website that suits my interest:
In addition, I utilized Google Sheets to keep track of any potential usability problems I encounter. The severity of the potential problems will be indicated using Nielsen’s 1-4 scale, where:
Most of the usability issues discovered were related to the "4. consistency and standards" heuristic. The website's job listing page had several copywriting that were not in line with current industry standards, which in turn caused confusion. Other issues that were identified are: the lack of back button on the pet license form ("3. user control and freedom"), truncated default input for "posting date" ("5. error prevention"), and lack of quick-access to recently visited pages ("7. flexibility and efficiency of use").
The slide deck addresses the points I mentioned above and provides screenshots to help contextualize and visualize the issues, presented by order of severity. In addition, recommendations are given for each of the issues and revised interface screens are showcased.