HONDA

MOTOR COMPANY
HEURISTIC EVALUATION REPORT

joyce xu 
informatics 283
MHCID @ UCI 
TABLE OF
CONTENTS

Executive Summary 03

Introduction 05

Methodology 07

Findings 11

Recommendations 28

Conclusion 29
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
quick overview
 What is this report about?
AT A This report provides a detailed heuristic evaluation of

GLANCE automobiles.honda.com.

The purpose of this evaluation is to identify Honda's

current website usability issues and provide expert
improvement recommendations. 

Our team identified 6 positives and 10 negative findings

across Honda's site and have provided a list of our
recommendations for improvement. 
INTRODUCTION
setting the context
THE POWER OF
DREAMS
automobiles.honda.com
is the official site for Honda's line of auto vehicles. 
The site provides potential buyers and interested parties the
opportunity to:

browse through all of Honda's current and future line

of automotive vehicles 
build and price different vehicles
view current offers
search inventory 
find a dealer
METHODOLOGY
our evaluation process
 METHODOLOGY
H1. Visibility of system status

H2. Match between system and the real world

H3. User control and freedom

Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics
H4. Consistency and standards Our project team of four evaluated Honda's website using Jakob
Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics - an industry-wide set of usability
H5. Error prevention guidelines that are used to assess a current interface.

H6. Recognition rather than recall The evaluation is an "inspection" of the Honda website and our goal
was to identify any violations of the above-mentioned heuristic. 
H7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
We sought out to discover the key usability issues, positive and
H8. Aesthetic and minimalist design negative, present on Honda's website.

H9. Recognize, diagnose, and recovery from errors

H10. Help and documentation 

METHODOLOGY
Scenario & Tasks
The approach used in this evaluation is based on a set of predetermined scenarios established before each expert's evaluation began. The five main
tasks each of the evaluators performed are as follows:

1. Browse vehicles: use the global navigation menu to browse through various vehicle pages

2. Build and price a vehicle: use the Build & Price functionality to get a quote

3. View vehicle features and specifications: view and browse vehicle information

4. Compare vehicles: compare 3 or more vehicles; delete and add a new vehicle to the comparison list 

5. Locate a dealer: find a dealer near you

METHODOLOGY
Severity Scale
Throughout the evaluation process, we ranked each of the S1. Cosmetic Issue: fix if there's time and it's easy
findings according to the following severity scaled. 
S2. Minor Issue: low priority, but should be noted
These severity codes represent how impactful the issue is on the
entire user experience. The lower the severity, the lower the S3. Major Issue: has a significant potential impact on usability 
impact. 
S4. Catastrophic Issue: a 'show-stopper' - must fix asap 
FINDINGS
what did we discover?
 FINDINGS
6
positives
&
10
negatives
SUMMARY
The team identified 6 positives and 10 negatives during our
evaluation. A thorough list and explanation of each positive
and negative are as follows. 
POSITIVES
POSITIVE 3

H1: Visibility of System Status  1

1. The banners on the car images allows users to quickly

see how many offers are currently available for that
model. 2

2. The prices, mpg, and options to do more is clearly

visible per vehicle. 

H2: Match between system and real world

3. The global navigation is useful in identifying which cars
you want to view. Users are able to select between various
types of vehicles: sedans, SUVs, etc.

4. When a page is loading on the Compare Vehicles

feature, the interface keeps users informed using. 

4
POSITIVE
1

H4:Consistency and standards

1. Iconography used on the site is easily identifiable.

2. The use of contemporary design standards allows an enjoyable 2

experience. 

H5: Error prevention

3. On the Build & Price section of the site, the modal notifications
are useful and helpful in preventing a user from resetting their
entire confirmation.

4. The sticky navigation follows users as they scroll down the

page. This gives them the option to navigate between pages
quickly.  3

4
POSITIVE

H8: Aesthetic and minimalist design 1

1. Immediately upon entrance to the site, users are pleased to

see a visually pleasing site that is both modern and sleek.

The site is very much image drive - as expected.

H10: Help and documentation 2

2
2. A robust search engine exists and works well. The engine picks
up relevancy and offers users assistance on how to proceed if
users do not find what they are looking for. 

3. Search is located in both the top and the bottom of the global
site. 

3
NEGATIVES
NEGATIVE

H1: Visibility of system status 

1. After clicking on one of the vehicles from the global navigation
menu, users are brought into the vehicle overview page (i.e. Honda
Accord, Clarity Plug-In Hybrid). The header carousel shows various 1

images of the car, but no model name, price or any other info. Some
models have it displayed, while others do not. It's unclear which
vehicle a user is currently looking at. 

2. This page shows a positive example of the Civic SI model clearly

named and all important information viewable. 

Recommendation
Display vehicle models, price, and MPG clearly on each
page, above the fold. 

S4
2
NEGATIVE

H2: Match between system and real world 

1. Use of unfamiliar language may be a challenge to some users.
Specifically, on the car details page, a list of features is provided,
yet no explanation of what they are.  1

2. On the bottom page, you'll find a button underneath price info

that reads "explore" and a link on the top left that says
"Discover". However, in the real world, you wouldn't say "let's go
explore vehicles" you would use terms like "shop" or "browse".

Recommendation
Display info buttons next to each feature. This will allow
users to get a better understanding of what these Honda
2
specific features are.  
S3
NEGATIVE

H3: User control and freedom 

1. Navigating through the pages is challenging because all the
images take a long time to load. This may cause users to get
irritated and abandon the page altogether.  1

Recommendation
Decrease waiting time. Enable users to quickly view pages
so they do not have to wait for the page to load. 

S3
NEGATIVE

H4: Consistency and standards

1. There's an error in the vehicles menu which erodes user trust
and confidence. As a user, it's very confusing and unclear what to
do when you encounter a dropdown that interferes with the
menu. 
1

Recommendation
This is a quick and easy fix that should be fixed
immediately. If left undone, it will continue to dampen
Honda's customer shopping experience 
S2
NEGATIVE

H4: Consistency and standards

1. On the Honda Fit EV vehicle, the user is brought to a completely
new page that does not resemble anything they've previously
seen. 

Recommendation
The page should be consistent with all other vehicle
overview pages. 

S3
NEGATIVE

H5: Error prevention
1. On the car comparison page, there is an X located on the top
right of ever car that allows you to remove that car from the
comparison list. It does not allow the user to undo the delete if 1
they would like to re-add. 

Recommendation
Allows users to undo actions on this specific feature and
the Build Your Car features.  

S2
NEGATIVE

H6: Recognition rather than recall 1

1. On the Locate a Dealer page, the search for zip-code
functionality is difficult to use. Users have to enter a zip-code and
then choose the State in the Dropdown icon below and then hit
the enter button. However, the drop-down button is hidden and is
not obvious what it's intended for. 

2. Once search results are displayed, users have to scroll to see all
results. This is extremely cumbersome and this page should just
display all results. 

Recommendation
The State selector drop-down should be clearly displayed
so users understand they need to select it before
2
proceeding to start the search. Reduce need for users to
scroll to see all search results. 
S3
NEGATIVE

H6: Recognition rather than recall

1. Honda's use of iconography in the vehicle features and
sepcifications section does a poor job explaining what these features 1

represent. It's not intuitive to the user and leaves then guessing. 

Recommendation
Provide labeling for each icon so users do not have to
interpret. 

S3
NEGATIVE

H7: Flexibility and efficiency of use 

1. Users are overloaded with information and visuals on each the
vehicle selection dropdown and the build & price dropdown.
Although Honda provides a categorization of vehicles, there are
simply too many choices negates the experience, impacting
recognition of information. Scrolling through the page is
strenuous. 

Recommendation
Display vehicle in a consolidated way so users do not have
to go through so much scrolling in order to find the
information they are looking for. Allow users to search
here. Allow a save feature for returning users. 
S4
NEGATIVE

H7: Flexibility and efficiency of use 

1. The Build & Price feature currently anchors to the lower half of the
vehicle overview page. It expects users to open each tab and fill out
their desired features. This expands and pushes the page even
further, causing all the content to move down. As a result, the model
picture is not visible. Every time you add something, users have to
1
scroll back up to see the change reflected in the model picture. 

2. These tabs unintentionally put a burden on the users and may turn

them away from using this site and move to competitors. 

Recommendation
Move the Build & Price feature into its own respective page
- not clustered inside the vehicle overview page. Consider 2

something that resembles a product page to accommodate

the Build & Price's robust functionality. 
S3
 RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY
Heuristic Issue Identified Severity Recommendation

H1 Car titles are not shown S4. Catastrophic Display vehicle model names, price and MPG clearly 

H2 Unfamiliar language S3. Major Display info tooltip next to unfamiliar specs and features

H3 Pages load slow S3. Major Decrease waiting time. Upgrade technology

H4 Bug on Build & Price page S2. Minor Fix bug 

H4 Vehicle page inconsistent S3. Major Be consistent with all vehicle overview pages

H5 Cannot undo an action S2. Major Allow users to undo actions to become more self-sufficient 

H6 Not able to select State S3. Major Provide a hint or allow users to see entire State name field 

H6 Iconography is hard to comprehend S3. Major Provide labeling for each icon to overcome cognitive overload

H7 Information overload; site too busy S4. Catastrophic Simplify page. Allow users to search for vehicle

H7 Build & price tool is hard to use S3. Major Move this feature to its own respective page for more flexibility 
CONCLUSION
summary and next steps
CONCLUSION
8

Summary and Next Steps

Our evaluation reveals several issues that are currently 6

preventing users from performing desired tasks on

Honda's website. 
4

As a follow-up to this evaluation, we recommend conducting

a usability test with 3-5 of your customers. In this type of test,
2
we actually observe how your users interact with the Honda
site. This will provide a more robust list of issues that are
affecting current users of automobiles.honda.com today.  
0
Cosmetic Minor Major Catastrophic

severity codes breakdown by ranking