Skype Heuristic Evaluation

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Challenge

Skype approached digital agency Silverlign Group about doing a heuristic evaluation of the Skype Windows desktop experience across various touchpoints including Skype.com and the product experience. They wanted to identify areas of opportunity for enhancing the user experience by viewing ratings of each step in the lifecycle.

Approach

I developed a rating system based on these user experience heuristics:

1. Contextual Relevance – To what extent do calls to action (CTAs) and content meet the user’s expectations? Are they provided at the right time and in the right place?

2. Ease of Use – How intuitive is the interface and does it positively impact the user’s overall emotional experience?

3. Consistency – How consistent are CTAs and layouts? Do users need to re-learn actions that they know how to do in other applications and websites or are conventions followed?

4. Content – How well is the information architecture structured? Are copy and images organized into digestible chunks that facilitate comprehension?

5. Aesthetics – How effective is the visual design?

Each of the five user experience heuristics were rated on a scale of 0 to 2, meaning the highest total score could be 10 (5×2).

I created a presentation that included detailed information about the user's experience with the product and evidence behind my rating decisions.

Conclusion

Skype was able to see the weakest areas of the customer journey easily and explore how they might improve it.

Overview page shows graphs of the individual steps and summarizes the key takeaways from the feature.

Step slide shows the screen shot of the area of interaction. Narration describes what I did and what I expected to happen. Findings include positive and negative observations and recommendations for improvement.

I catalogued every slide in an Excel document to serve as an index of all touchpoints and their ratings. This is an excerpt of the Add Contacts section.