COMP3511/9511 – Human Computer Interaction
Assignment 3
1. Introduction
In designing a user interface, it is important to be able to critically analyse what makes a website good or bad, without just stating that you do or do not like it. The critique should be based on formal
user interface principles and theories instead of basing it on your ideas. The process of providing a
critique involves stating both the positive and negative aspects of the interface.
In this assignment, you will critically analyse the user interface of a legal information or
consumer rights website. These websites provide essential public services, including legal advice,
consumer protection, dispute resolution, tenancy rights, and information about government
regulations. They are often content-heavy, policy-driven, and used by a diverse audience including
vulnerable or digitally inexperienced users.
You may choose one of the following websites, or select a similar one related to legal guidance,
consumer rights, or regulatory services in Australia or internationally.
Example Websites:
• NSW Fair Trading
Offers consumer protection, tenancy information, building licenses, and dispute
resolution.
• Legal Aid NSW
Provides free legal services, self-help resources, and support for disadvantaged people.
• ACCC – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Covers competition law, fair trading, scams, and product safety.
• Justice Connect
Supports not-for-profits and individuals with legal help and digital legal tools.
• Victorian Legal Aid
Another state-based legal aid service, similar to NSW’s.
• QCAT – Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
Offers legal services related to small claims, tenancy, and administrative reviews.
• Citizens Advice (UK)
A widely used UK site offering free advice on consumer rights, housing, employment, and
legal issues.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (USA)
Provides consumer protection and financial education in the US context.
You can analyse the whole website or even select some key pages.
Please make sure you review the website in the English language.
2. Steps for doing this assignment
The following presents a list of steps that you need to follow to complete the assignment. Please
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set out your work clearly in a report-based format.
2.1. Introduction: Provide a brief explanation of the purpose of the website.
2.2. Analysis of the design and visual design principles in an issue table: Try to complete some
tasks from the user’s perspective while analysing the website. The tasks should cover the main
functionality of the website.
As you complete the tasks, note down any negative or positive aspects of the interface in an
issues table (see Appendix B).
Your critique is based on Design Principles, Heuristics, Usability Goals and User Experience
Goals (found in Appendix A).
Additionally, you are required to analyse the chosen website based on visual design principles,
including layout style (symmetry or asymmetry), white space, colour harmony, colour contrast,
alignment of the components, and system flow. Once again note down any issues you
encounter or any positive aspects of the interface in an issues table.
List both design principles and visual design principles in the table.
Please consider the points below in your issue table:
a. In your issue table, you should try to list as many usability and visual design issues as
you can, including both positive and negative issues.
b. Number each of the issues that you discovered in your walkthrough. The issues table
(refer to Appendix B) will consist of an Issue Number, whether the issue is
Positive/Negative, Severity rating, Description, Heuristic, Design Principle or Visual
Design Principles that apply to each issue and the effects of each issue on the Usability
Goals and the User Experience Goals. You will also include a screenshot of the issue
found with an annotation that explains the issue visually. (You should annotate your
screenshots to make it clear where the issue presents itself).
c. As you go, link how the lack or existence of each principle (Design Principles, Heuristic
Principles, and Visual Design Principles) could affect the Usability goals and,
consequently, the user experience goals.
For example, if the text colour is completely different on different pages of the website,
it is an example of lack of consistency which is related to the design principal category,
lack of consistency can affect learnability which is related to usability goals, and it can
make the website annoying or frustrating which is related to the user experience goals.
You can find this example in Appendix B.
d. Please consider that each issue can be related to more than one design or heuristic
principle.
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e. You must consider both positive and negative issues.
f. Make sure your screenshots point out specific features on the screenshots. Do this by
annotating the screenshots. We strongly encourage you to take regular screenshots as the
websites are live and can change without notice.
Pictures below show some examples of annotated screenshots:
If you prefer not to include the screenshots in the table, you can put them in an appendix and just
add the image number in the issues table.
2.3. Analysis of the design and visual design principles in detail
a. Choose 8 negative issues from your issues table and IN DETAIL provide a critique of
the issues and potential solutions to solve the issue. For example, if you have 20 issues
in your issue table, choose the 8 most important negative issues and explain them in
detail.
b. You should explain each issue based on the design principles, the heuristics principles,
visual design principles or a combination of them, then mention why the lack of or
existence of each issue could increase or decrease the usability goals and consequently
the user experience goals.
c. Your critical analysis should have enough detail. For instance, it is not enough to just
mention “the arrangement of buttons provides a poor mapping.” You must be able to
critically justify each of your points in detail.
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d. After doing the critical analysis for each of the 8 issues, justify the reason you believe there
is a usability or visual design issue and suggest a possible solution to resolve the issue. For
example, if there is a consistency issue, propose a solution to address the consistency issue
of the website.
2.4. Analysis of Accessibility
In this section, you will analyse the website in terms of accessibility for people with different
needs, including vision impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, etc. and provide
possible solutions to solve 2 issues.
* You don’t need to include the accessibility issues in the issue table.
2.5. Analysis of Mobile Design
Review the website on your phone and identify usability issues related to the small touch
screen. Identify 3 usability issues and provide a solution for resolving each issue.
* You don’t need to include the Mobile design issues in the issue table.
2.6. Sketch your design solutions
Referring to the issues identified related to the design principles, visual design, accessibility
and mobile design, sketch 13 potential solutions (8 sketches related to the usability and visual
design principles, 2 sketches related to accessibility, and 3 sketches for Mobile design issues)
to these issues that you believe may improve the interface. Please annotate the sketch of your
solution making it clear what you have changed and explaining how it has improved the
interface or removed the issue you had originally found.
3. Formatting
Please read the following carefully, as there are marks allocated for your formatting and
presentation.
● The report should be presented in an A4 document.
● The report, excluding the cover pages, must be a maximum of 20 pages.
● 12-point font should be used for the main body of text.
● Consistent font sizes (e.g., use the same font size for all headings)
● Use 1.5 line spacing
● Use a 2.5 cm margin on all sides (top, bottom, left, and right).
● Add page numbers
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● Include your details including name, student number, tutorial time, and tutor on the title
page.
The following can be used as an overall guide for structuring your report:
A. Title Page, stating the title of your assignment, your name, student number and the
name of your tutor and tutorial time – THIS IS NOT INCLUDED IN YOUR PAGE
LIMIT
B. Explaining the purpose of the selected website (One paragraph)
C. Issues table (including Annotated Screenshots) (3-4 pages)
D. Analysis of the 8 chosen design and visual design issues with their respective 8
solutions (4-6 pages)
E. Analysis of the mobile design and solutions (2-3 pages)
F. Analysis of the accessibility and solutions (1-1.5 page)
G. Sketch of the solutions (5-6 pages) – each sketch must be at least 1/3 a page for
readability
Note to the above: The number of pages above are guidelines and suggested maximums for each
section. You do not need to fill the suggested space. The maximum for the report is 20 pages in
total, please note that the title page does not contribute to this page limit.
Your work is evaluated based on your depth of analysis and the accuracy of your answers.
Therefore, if the number of pages is less than 20, it won’t affect your mark given you cover
all the required parts of the assignment to high quality.
4. Assessment
Please ensure you read the following carefully, as there is important information regarding how
you are to submit the assignment.
● The assignment constitutes 25% of your final assessment.
● This assignment is to be completed individually.
● For late submissions:
• A late penalty of 5% will be deducted (off the raw mark) per day (or part
thereof) late.
• Assignments submitted after 23:59 on the due date will be marked as late.
• E.g. if your assignment is marked at 80% and you are late by two days, you
will receive 70%
5. Submission
The assignment is to be submitted electronically through Moodle as a PDF file.
The assignment is due and to be submitted online (using the provided link) in Week
5, July 4th
at 23:59.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In the final hours or so before the submission deadline, Moodle
often
experiences a high load as students try to submit at once. A late submission because Moodle was
overloaded is not a valid excuse. Upload earlier! Uploading your assignment earlier will also give
you a chance to make any necessary changes to your work if plagiarism is detected by the
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plagiarism checker upon submission.
A Turnitin submission link will be made available on Moodle prior to the due date. As you submit,
your assignment will be passed through a plagiarism check. If there are any issues, you can re- submit the assignment and a new plagiarism report will be generated.
Please note that for second and subsequent submissions, it can take up to 24 hours to generate
the plagiarism report, so do not leave this to the last minute!
6. Plagiarism
If plagiarism is detected a maximum penalty of zero marks will be awarded for this assignment.
Note that all cases of plagiarism are reported to the School Plagiarism
officer. All assignments
are run through a plagiarism checker so it would be ill-advised to copy and paste either from
the web or another student.
Assignments are checked against a database of past and present submissions, along with
online websites and other resources.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own. * Examples include:
• direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying material, ideas
or concepts from a book, article, report, or other written document (whether published or
unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or
software, web site, Internet, other electronic resources, or another person’s assignment
without appropriate acknowledgement.
• paraphrasing another person’s work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form
and/or progression of ideas of the original.
• piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole.
• presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole
or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor; and
• claiming credit for a proportion of work contributed to a group assessment item that is
greater than that actually contributed.
For the purposes of this policy, submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for
academic credit elsewhere may be considered plagiarism.
Knowingly permitting your work to be copied by another student may also be considered to be
plagiarism.
Note that an assessment item produced in oral, not written, form, or involving live presentation,
may similarly contain plagiarised material.
The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic
discipline does not amount to plagiarism.
The Learning Centre website is the main repository for resources for staff and students on
plagiarism and academic honesty. These resources can be located via:
https://student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism
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The Learning Centre also provides substantial educational written materials, workshops, and
tutorials to aid students, for example, in:
• correct referencing practices.
• paraphrasing, summarising, essay writing, and time management.
• appropriate use of, and attribution for, a range of materials including text, images,
formulae, and concepts.
• Individual assistance is available on request from The Learning Centre.
Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of
the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management.
Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting, and the proper referencing of sources
in preparing all assessment items.
* Based on that proposed to the University of Newcastle by the St James Ethics Centre. Used with
kind permission from the University of Newcastle Adapted with kind permission from the
University of Melbourne.
7. Learning Outcomes
• Apply your understanding of the heuristics, design principles and visual design to
formally evaluate the usability and user experience goals of an interface.
• Apply your knowledge of mobile design to evaluate the website and adapt it for smaller
screens.
• Apply your knowledge of accessibility to evaluate the accessibility limitations of a
website.
• Identify both positive and negative aspects of design.
• Understand how the design of a system is influenced by the intended
audience.
• To understand the practical issues of real-world interface design and
evaluation.
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Appendix A
Design
Principles
Heuristics Usability
Goals
Some User
Experience Goals
Structure and
layout
Match between
system and the
real world
Effectiveness Satisfying
Affordance User Control and
Freedom
Efficiency Enjoyable
Visibility Consistency and
Standards
Safety Fun
Feedback Help users
recognise, diagnose
and recover from
errors
Utility Entertaining
Constraints Error Prevention Learnability Helpful
Mapping Recognition rather
than recall
Memorability Motivating
Consistency Flexibility and
Efficiency of Use
Aesthetically
pleasing
Aesthetic and
minimalist design
Frustrating
Help and
Documentation
Boring
Visibility of System
Status
Rewarding
Annoying
You can find detailed definitions of these design principles, user experience goals, usability
goals and heuristics in your textbook (Sharp et al., 2019):
• For Design Principles: Section 1.7.3 (p26-32) in Interaction Design (Sharp et al., 2019)
• For User Experience Goals: Table 1.1 (p22) in Interaction Design (Sharp et al., 2019)
• More information on User experience Goals:
Section 1.7.2 (p22-26) in Interaction Design
(Sharp et al., 2019)
• For Usability Goals: Section 1.7.1 (p19-22) in Interaction Design (Sharp et al., 2019)
• For Heuristics: Section 16.2.1 (p550-560) in Interaction Design (Sharp et al., 2019)
• Accessibility and Inclusiveness 1.6 (p17-18) in Interaction Design (Sharp et al., 2019)
• Also, review these lectures: Week 1 (Design Principles), Week 2 (Visual Design, and Mobile
Design) and Week 3 (Accessibility) COMP3511/9511 – Human Computer Interaction Assignment 1
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Appendix B
Please use the following Issues Table format to present the issues you have found in your selected website
Issue table
Reference Severity +/- Principle Description
Effects on the
usability goals
Effects on the
user experience goals Screenshot
1 3 Negative Consistency
(Design Principles)
The link text colours are completely
different in different pages of the
website which makes the user unsure
if they provide the same function.
Learnability and
memorability
Annoying
Frustrating
2
Positive
Match between
system and the real
world
(Heuristics)
The shopping cart icon is a trolley
that is similar to a real-world trolley.
This allows the user to connect the
icon its function, purchasing their
items.
Learnability Helpful
3
Positive
Flexibility and
Efficiency of Use
(Heuristics)
There is a quick purchase feature
without the need to create a new
account and login to the system
preventing any unnecessary steps
and streamlining the process.
Efficiency
Satisfying
Helpful
…
• Reference: Choose how you would like to number or reference your issues
• Severity:
0 = Not a usability issue (a technical bug)
1 = Cosmetic issue (fix if there is time)
2 = Minor issue (should fix)
3 = Major issue (must fix)
4 = Showstopper (cannot release until fixed)
• +/-: Positive or negative, can use a + or a – to denote
For positive issues, the severity can be defined by considering the potential absence of the positive usability point that you mentioned. In other
words, you should evaluate how important the feature is and how it can impact users if the website doesn’t provide it.
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Appendix C
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How should I annotate my screenshots?
Use Microsoft Word, Paint, or any other image annotation tool.
2. Can I include multiple issues of the same principle/heuristic in the issues table?
Yes, identifying multiple instances of the same principle/heuristic is acceptable. However,
including a variety demonstrates a more thorough analysis. Aim for a diverse range to
showcase your critical thinking skills.
3. How should I make the design solution sketches?
Choose your preferred method: hand-sketching, prototyping tools like Figma, or
modifying screenshots.
4. How many pages should I write to get a high distinction?
Focus on Quality: The length of your assignment doesn’t impact your grade. We prioritise
the quality of your analysis.
5. Are you free to modify the structure of the assignment? For example, start with the
issue table then add the other headings? Or add screenshots inside the table or
outside the table as an appendix?
Feel free to modify the structure. You can start with the issue table and add other sections
later or vice versa.
For example: If you prefer not to include the screenshots in the table, you can put them in
an appendix and just add the image number in the issues table.
6. Is it OK if we talk about positive or negative issues? Should there be a balance?
Aim for a combination of positive and negative aspects of the website’s design. It’s okay to
lean towards one side, but you should discuss both for a well-rounded analysis.
7. Can I add pictures within the table, or should I add them as an appendix?
Your Choice: You can incorporate images with the table or within the main document or
add them as an appendix.
8. Will I lose marks if I go over or below the page limit?
Going below the page limit will not result in any deductions. Up to 15% above the page
limit is acceptable.
9. Should I focus more on design principles or visual designs?
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Prioritise whichever aspect (design principles or visual design) is more relevant to your
chosen website. You can discuss both equally or focus more on the prominent element
identified.
10. How many issues should I cover in the issue table to get high distinction?
Quality over Quantity: The number of issues isn’t a strict metric. We aim for a
comprehensive analysis. You might combine related issues for better organisation.
11. How long should each section of the assignment be?
Quality over Quantity: The number of words and the length of each section are not
important. The depth of analysis and the quality will be marked.
12. Should you write just usability issues or the visual design principles in the issue table?
You should write both.
13. Should you explain the process of completing the tasks that you want to use to
analyse the website?
No, you don’t need to have a separate section for this. However, in the analysis section, if
you think it can support your critical analysis, you can provide a sentence. For example,
when we tried to make a donation, we couldn’t find X feature.
14. Is there any specific template for the cover page?
No, just write your name, zID, your tutor’s name, and your class time.
15. Can we analyse a foreign website that is in English, or should we only analyse
Australian websites?
As long as the website is related to legal information or consumer rights, that’s fine. If
you’re not sure about the selected website, you can ask your tutor’s opinion in your tutorial.
Please don’t post it on Moodle, as this is private and should be discussed directly with your
tutor.
16. Can we copy a part of our assignment text on Moodle to get the lecturer’s or tutor’s
opinions?
No, it is against university policy to share your assignment with the entire class.
17. Can we show our assignment to the tutor or lecturer before the deadline to get
feedback so that we can improve the assignment?
No, but if you have any questions about the assignment instructions or the course content
that can help you with the assignment, you can post them on the course forum or ask your
tutor in class.
18. Should you take a separate screenshot for each issue, or can you use the same
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screenshot if it shows multiple issues?
You don’t need to take separate screenshots if you can cover different issues with one
screenshot. Just annotate the issues accordingly.
19. Should you have two separate tables, one for visual design and another for design
principles, or can you have just one table?
It’s up to you.
20. Should accessibility and mobile design issues be added to the issue table?
No.
21. How should you present the severity in the issue table? Should you use a numerical
range such as 1-5 or words such as ‘low,’ ‘medium,’ and ‘high’ to explain the severity?
It’s up to you, but if you choose to use numbers, don’t forget to include a legend to explain
their meaning.
22. Should I analyse the entire website or specific pages?
You should focus on analysing the main parts of the website that provide key
functionalities. If there are pages that are similar to each other and share similar usability
issues, you can use your own judgment to decide whether to include them.
23. Can we use Generative AI to do the assignment?
• You may use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek only to refine
your own writing—for example, to improve grammar, sentence clarity, or structure.
• However, using generative AI to perform the core tasks of the assignment—such as
analysis, sketching, or generating content that forms the main part of the submission—is
strictly prohibited and will be treated as plagiarism.
• If your submission shows a high level of similarity to AI-generated content, your tutors
may ask you to provide the AI chat history as evidence o