A heuristic evaluation of a popular Canadian grocery store, Food Basics.
Role: UX Researcher and Designer
Team: Renate Danhoundo, Misbah Hemraj, Lily & Jacqueline Tracy
Tools: Figma
Duration: 2 weeks (Part-time)
The Food Basic’s app permits users to create a shopping list based on what products are available at Food Basics.
The app includes:
A heuristic is a guideline that tests the usability of a product. It is a method used to create an outline of the strengths and drawbacks of a current product. We used Neilson and Molich’s 10 interface design heuristics throughout the evaluation.
Our evaluation focused on two task flows: Flyer discounts and grocery list, and Coupons, where we applied five heuristic evaluators:
Recognition vs Recall, Error Prevention, Consistency and Standards, Visibility of System Status and Match between System and the Real World.
The evaluation uncovered several usability issues:
Recognition vs recall was a concern as users couldn't review selected coupons, relying on memory.
Error Prevention was lacking, in terms of accidental deletion of grocery items.
Consistency and Standards arose from the swipe left action in the "Coupon" and "List" sections which resulted in different results. Users also found the promo container misleading, mistaking it for a button.
Visibility of System Status was inadequate as adding items to the list lacked a confirmation message.
Match between System and Real world; users were confused by the “list” terminology used.
To improve these usability issues we recommended the following:
Displaying a comprehensive coupon list with images, names, savings, and prices for Recognition vs Recall.
Error Prevention could be enhanced with a confirmation pop-up for deleting items.
Simplifying app actions and the use of button colors would address Consistency and Standards.
Confirmation screens and changing the navigation bar icon to "Grocery list" would improve Visibility of System Status and Match between System and Real World.
