The E-learning Curve at Edublogs

Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at the presentation-sharing channels authorSTREAM and SlideShare and how these two services enable the delivery of content via the Web. Both services rely on common read/write Web design and interaction patterns; like many other social sharing services, users are able to add tags, rate, comment, and embed content.

One of the nice things about assessing these two services is that it gives me a rare opportunity to discuss usability heuristics. According to Microsoft, the heuristic evaluation process is

a quick method to evaluate any user interface (UI) by using a list of heuristics or guidelines. Ideally, two or three people independently evaluate the UI using the heuristics so that the usability issues that each person finds can be compared. This evaluation technique can be used throughout the development process, from early screen shots to fully implemented code, but it is a good idea to run heuristic evaluations early in the development process so that the UI can be redesigned.

(Microsoft.com)

In this context, heuristics are “rules of thumb” or design principles used to evaluate the conformance of user interface (UI) features and functionality in computer applications. Probably the most well-known advocate of the heuristic evaluation approach is web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen.

Table