SMART TOOL HEURISTIC EVALUATION
AThe SMART Tool is an open source, non-proprietary, and freely available platform used to track animal migrations. Working as a consultant with Inzovu, I performed a heuristic analysis for the developers of the SMART Tool in order to assure that the tool could evolve with the needs of the users. At its core, SMART consists of a software application that enables you to collect, store, communicate, and evaluate ranger-based data on: patrol efforts, patrol results, and threat levels. Through discussions with Wildlife Conservation Society we learned that the SMART app has three major elements that are critical to its success: reports, data models, and queries/summaries. These areas have the most traffic, and the users have varied levels of literacy.
HEURISTIC EVALUATION
The approach for the evaluation was based on a set of common principles for improved site-based conservation effectiveness, to enable future development and adaptations. We found five major usability problems in the application: Adoption, data input accuracy, efficiency, user manual ease-of-use/training, and guide the experience. With these design critiques in mind, we recommended certain alterations to the infrastructure and display of the website to help clarify the terms, iconography, efficiency, and functions available as well as provide proper feedback from actions the users take to complete tasks, and browse or search items.
What We Did
Studied, categorized and isolated the issues discovered in an expert heuristic evaluation
Reviewed the SMART Tool Training manual and correlated it with 3 major reporting modules.
Assessed the interface, user flow, task, and goals of each module and compared them to the 12 usability heuristics
Highlighted the most important/critical issues
What We Found
Critical issues that affect the performance and usability of the SMART Tool
Issues range from minor to major on the heuristic severity scale.
WHAT WE FOUND
Adoption
Because the SMART application is not optimized and challenging to navigate, people may abandon the app or features in the app and revert to old ways of doing things, missing an opportunity to leverage SMART in new ways.
User Manual Ease-of-use & Training
Update the training manual, possibly consider breaking it into smaller manuals. Allow users to search the file with ease. We suggest a digital copy that could be available via the web or built directly into the SMART Tool.
Guide the Experience
Users need direction, currently the SMART tool relies heavily on the use of a training manual and practice. Clean communication and structural hierarchy will allow users to unlock the full potential of the SMART Tool.
Other Recommendations
Infrastructure alterations to iconography, efficiency
Improve Search and Browsing functions
Data Input Accuracy