6 ms·

UX Check

207 points by mhr_online 12y ago

mkorfmann 12y ago
nice! :)
scrollaway 12y ago
Are you the author? This seems like it would fare better as a Show HN.
- mhr_online 12y ago
  I wish i was :) no i'm just sharing.
iamtew 12y ago
Too bad there's no Firefox version.
- andrewchoi 12y ago
  Seconded, would love to use this with my existing FF workflow.
  - cgallello 12y ago
    Thanks for the input. I'll look into this.
tlack 12y ago
This is really handy. As I do more management (yuck) I find myself having to put together reams of commented screenshots all the time. My process for this is piecemeal - but this would definitely help. Thanks! A few suggestions: 1. HTML, Google Docs, or PDF output would be faaaar more useful than Word. I'm actually surprised you used Word here. We must have very different work environments. :) 2. I feel like there are usability/UX recommendations other than Nielsen that might be more useful for some audiences. His advice is a bit mundane and abstract for my tastes. Perhaps the https://userium.com/ https://userium.com/ list could be of use for some. Having options here (which I agree stinks of bloatware) could be interesting. Oh.. and extra points for using a .CO :)
- factorialboy 12y ago
  Curious, why extra points for `.co` ?
  - tlack 12y ago
    I was formerly the CTO of .CO, so it's shameless self-interest. :) If you're considering what TLD to use for your next project, .CO gives you a ton of great freebies with their membership program[1]. Worth a look. EDIT [1] whoops forgot the link thanks pc86 http://www.go.co/members/ http://www.go.co/members/
    - pc86 12y ago
      http://www.go.co/ http://www.go.co/ for those interested. (No affiliation, just had to Google for it)
      - mmorris 12y ago
        For the membership program specifically: http://www.go.co/members/ http://www.go.co/members/ Even though a lot of the offers are closed (would be nice if I could filter those out) there are still some handy deals in there. I actually use a .co domain and had no idea about this program, so thanks to the GP!
    - daryltucker 12y ago
      .CO is also great in that they help startup communities, such as "Startup Weekend".
    - jscheel 12y ago
      I've always been very frustrated with .co domains, since they are so close to .com and often get confused with one another. How does .CO handle this?
      - tlack 12y ago
        Some companies, especially at the beginning, would put a trailing slash on their domain names when using .CO on a business card or other printed material. Things have gotten better now, and millions of people have interacted with t.co, the Twitter shortener, Vine, etc., which means that .CO isn't quite as "underground" as it used to be. I think ultimately the choice of TLD should be related to other branding decisions in that you consider your market first. So if you are pursuing a group that's very internet savvy, or startup savvy, they've probably heard of .CO and you can use it freely. (Likewise, you could probably use an unusual/industry name) But if you are going after people who aren't familiar with URLs or domain names -- or maybe can't even discriminate between an email address and a domain name -- you'd be better off going with the safer option.
api 12y ago
Tangent: what a gorgeous web site!
onion2k 12y ago
Very nice. Something that will definitely prove useful. Note: The highlight box seems to be slightly misaligned vertically on some sites. On one site I tested it seemed to be ignoring padding-top on the <body>.
- cgallello 12y ago
  Good to know, thanks. Can you let me know the specific sites you tested it on? I'll take a look.
cgallello 12y ago
Hi all - I created UX Check as a side project over the past few months and I'm glad that people are finding it to be helpful! There are some awesome suggestions in this thread and I'm already working on a v2, so feel free to keep the ideas coming.
- nzealand 12y ago
  That is a very nice tool for taking screenshots. Thanks! Your website had me thinking the tool was going to perform an automatic scan for usability issues. You could be a little clearer that the tool allows users to note usability issues.
known 12y ago
Brilliant.
butler14 12y ago
Really nice extension. Sorry if these have already been suggested, but here's a few ideas from me: When selecting "Other" in the heuristics dropdown allow you to enter your own in a text field. 4 levels of severity seems unnecessarily limiting - 10 would be nice
- cgallello 12y ago
  Thanks! V2 will support custom heuristics so hopefully that will help. I'll consider adding more severity ratings as well.
akvlad 12y ago
I'm curious to know how the author managed to take a screenshot of the site? I know there were methods to actually recreate the DOM via some 3rd party library. Not sure if things have changed with HTML5 or others means of doing it.
- cgallello 12y ago
  I used a Chrome extension API. One alternative I've heard is copying the DOM over into a separate canvas element, which you can save as an image. I haven't tried that yet though. https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-captureVisibleTab https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-captureV...
jmlacroix 12y ago
This looks like a great tool! I've been working on that topic too in the last year. I developed Capian (http://capian.co http://capian.co), a tool to help usability professionals make better heuristic evaluations faster. I'm a full-stack developer and my partner is a UX designer. There's a lot of missing tools in our space. Great to see other people trying to address them!
gordjw 12y ago
Thanks, this is going to be really handy! Just curious, what do you use to create the docx in browser?
- cgallello 12y ago
  That was the most frustrating part of the project. I used the Open XML SDK for Javascript. There isn't a whole lot of documentation so it was a lot of guess and check. http://openxmldeveloper.org/wiki/w/wiki/open-xml-sdk-for-javascript.aspx http://openxmldeveloper.org/wiki/w/wiki/open-xml-sdk-for-jav...
CitizenKane 12y ago
Hey there, really love the extension! It's nice to have something like this and it's a good way to record thoughts and feedback. Speaking of user experience, you should really use inline installation[1] for chrome extensions. It provides a really nice experience so that users don't need to leave your site. It also allows you to detect if the extension is installed so that way you can remove the install button for people who already have it. [1] https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/inline_installation https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/inline_installation
biot 12y ago
The site could use a UX check itself. :) Using Chrome on Windows: http://imgur.com/EK3Mu3s http://imgur.com/EK3Mu3s http://imgur.com/SbUmSzh http://imgur.com/SbUmSzh Also, what would be really handy is the ability to download the result not as a document, but rather to integrate it with existing issue tracking software such as JIRA. I'm sure that's on your V2 plans with some monthly recurring plan.
- cgallello 12y ago
  Yikes, that's bad. Do you use any accessibility settings like changing the font size on websites? Or are you on an older version of Chrome? Thanks for sharing.
  - biot 12y ago
    Current version of Chrome, but my Windows font settings are set to 110% (system-wide, not browser specific) to make it easier to view text when in a high resolution on a small monitor. I see this issue with various sites that assume a fixed font size which can never change. If I manually add "font-size: 16px;" to your html,body CSS definition, everything displays properly. The discrepancy is occurring because you are using a fixed pixel height (eg: for the "ten heuristics" div its height is 500px) but letting the browser/system determine the font size.
- pyrocat 12y ago
  I'm using the latest version of Chrome on Windows 7 and I'm not seeing your errors.
neves 12y ago
Great service. Bonus link: how to conduct an Heurist Evaluation: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-evaluation/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-e...
Chanie 12y ago
Cool browser extension! Thanks for sharing

UX Check

207 points by mhr_online 12y ago

mkorfmann 12y ago

nice! :)

scrollaway 12y ago

Are you the author? This seems like it would fare better as a Show HN.

mhr_online 12y ago
I wish i was :) no i'm just sharing.

iamtew 12y ago

Too bad there's no Firefox version.

andrewchoi 12y ago
Seconded, would love to use this with my existing FF workflow.
- cgallello 12y ago
  Thanks for the input. I'll look into this.

tlack 12y ago

This is really handy. As I do more management (yuck) I find myself having to put together reams of commented screenshots all the time. My process for this is piecemeal - but this would definitely help. Thanks! A few suggestions: 1. HTML, Google Docs, or PDF output would be faaaar more useful than Word. I'm actually surprised you used Word here. We must have very different work environments. :) 2. I feel like there are usability/UX recommendations other than Nielsen that might be more useful for some audiences. His advice is a bit mundane and abstract for my tastes. Perhaps the https://userium.com/ https://userium.com/ list could be of use for some. Having options here (which I agree stinks of bloatware) could be interesting. Oh.. and extra points for using a .CO :)

factorialboy 12y ago
Curious, why extra points for `.co` ?
- tlack 12y ago
  I was formerly the CTO of .CO, so it's shameless self-interest. :) If you're considering what TLD to use for your next project, .CO gives you a ton of great freebies with their membership program[1]. Worth a look. EDIT [1] whoops forgot the link thanks pc86 http://www.go.co/members/ http://www.go.co/members/
  - pc86 12y ago
    http://www.go.co/ http://www.go.co/ for those interested. (No affiliation, just had to Google for it)
    - mmorris 12y ago
      For the membership program specifically: http://www.go.co/members/ http://www.go.co/members/ Even though a lot of the offers are closed (would be nice if I could filter those out) there are still some handy deals in there. I actually use a .co domain and had no idea about this program, so thanks to the GP!
  - daryltucker 12y ago
    .CO is also great in that they help startup communities, such as "Startup Weekend".
  - jscheel 12y ago
    I've always been very frustrated with .co domains, since they are so close to .com and often get confused with one another. How does .CO handle this?
    - tlack 12y ago
      Some companies, especially at the beginning, would put a trailing slash on their domain names when using .CO on a business card or other printed material. Things have gotten better now, and millions of people have interacted with t.co, the Twitter shortener, Vine, etc., which means that .CO isn't quite as "underground" as it used to be. I think ultimately the choice of TLD should be related to other branding decisions in that you consider your market first. So if you are pursuing a group that's very internet savvy, or startup savvy, they've probably heard of .CO and you can use it freely. (Likewise, you could probably use an unusual/industry name) But if you are going after people who aren't familiar with URLs or domain names -- or maybe can't even discriminate between an email address and a domain name -- you'd be better off going with the safer option.

api 12y ago

Tangent: what a gorgeous web site!

onion2k 12y ago

Very nice. Something that will definitely prove useful. Note: The highlight box seems to be slightly misaligned vertically on some sites. On one site I tested it seemed to be ignoring padding-top on the <body>.

cgallello 12y ago
Good to know, thanks. Can you let me know the specific sites you tested it on? I'll take a look.

cgallello 12y ago

Hi all - I created UX Check as a side project over the past few months and I'm glad that people are finding it to be helpful! There are some awesome suggestions in this thread and I'm already working on a v2, so feel free to keep the ideas coming.

nzealand 12y ago
That is a very nice tool for taking screenshots. Thanks! Your website had me thinking the tool was going to perform an automatic scan for usability issues. You could be a little clearer that the tool allows users to note usability issues.

known 12y ago

Brilliant.

butler14 12y ago

Really nice extension. Sorry if these have already been suggested, but here's a few ideas from me: When selecting "Other" in the heuristics dropdown allow you to enter your own in a text field. 4 levels of severity seems unnecessarily limiting - 10 would be nice

cgallello 12y ago
Thanks! V2 will support custom heuristics so hopefully that will help. I'll consider adding more severity ratings as well.

akvlad 12y ago

I'm curious to know how the author managed to take a screenshot of the site? I know there were methods to actually recreate the DOM via some 3rd party library. Not sure if things have changed with HTML5 or others means of doing it.

cgallello 12y ago
I used a Chrome extension API. One alternative I've heard is copying the DOM over into a separate canvas element, which you can save as an image. I haven't tried that yet though. https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-captureVisibleTab https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-captureV...

jmlacroix 12y ago

This looks like a great tool! I've been working on that topic too in the last year. I developed Capian (http://capian.co http://capian.co), a tool to help usability professionals make better heuristic evaluations faster. I'm a full-stack developer and my partner is a UX designer. There's a lot of missing tools in our space. Great to see other people trying to address them!

gordjw 12y ago

Thanks, this is going to be really handy! Just curious, what do you use to create the docx in browser?

cgallello 12y ago
That was the most frustrating part of the project. I used the Open XML SDK for Javascript. There isn't a whole lot of documentation so it was a lot of guess and check. http://openxmldeveloper.org/wiki/w/wiki/open-xml-sdk-for-javascript.aspx http://openxmldeveloper.org/wiki/w/wiki/open-xml-sdk-for-jav...

CitizenKane 12y ago

Hey there, really love the extension! It's nice to have something like this and it's a good way to record thoughts and feedback. Speaking of user experience, you should really use inline installation[1] for chrome extensions. It provides a really nice experience so that users don't need to leave your site. It also allows you to detect if the extension is installed so that way you can remove the install button for people who already have it. [1] https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/inline_installation https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/inline_installation

biot 12y ago

The site could use a UX check itself. :) Using Chrome on Windows: http://imgur.com/EK3Mu3s http://imgur.com/EK3Mu3s http://imgur.com/SbUmSzh http://imgur.com/SbUmSzh Also, what would be really handy is the ability to download the result not as a document, but rather to integrate it with existing issue tracking software such as JIRA. I'm sure that's on your V2 plans with some monthly recurring plan.

cgallello 12y ago
Yikes, that's bad. Do you use any accessibility settings like changing the font size on websites? Or are you on an older version of Chrome? Thanks for sharing.
- biot 12y ago
  Current version of Chrome, but my Windows font settings are set to 110% (system-wide, not browser specific) to make it easier to view text when in a high resolution on a small monitor. I see this issue with various sites that assume a fixed font size which can never change. If I manually add "font-size: 16px;" to your html,body CSS definition, everything displays properly. The discrepancy is occurring because you are using a fixed pixel height (eg: for the "ten heuristics" div its height is 500px) but letting the browser/system determine the font size.
pyrocat 12y ago
I'm using the latest version of Chrome on Windows 7 and I'm not seeing your errors.

neves 12y ago

Great service. Bonus link: how to conduct an Heurist Evaluation: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-evaluation/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-e...

Chanie 12y ago

Cool browser extension! Thanks for sharing