Computer and Information Science Vol. 3, No. 2; May 2010 211 Conceptual Framework for a Heuristics Based Methodology for Interface Evaluation of Educational Games Hasiah Mohamed @ Omar Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Dungun Campus, 2300 Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia & Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: 60-9840-3835 E-mail: hasia980@tganu.uitm.edu.my Azizah Jaafar Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: 60-3-8921-6811 E-mail: aj@ftsm.ukm.my Abstract The use of educational game in teaching and learning is increasingly relevant trend. Interface and usability are common elements in games development and important elements for evaluation purposes. This study is aiming to develop a methodology for heuristics based formative usability evaluation that can be used to evaluate interface of educational game. The methodology includes set of evaluation questions for different types of evaluators which are expected to optimize the use of resources regarding the online evaluation tool. The methodology is intended for the evaluation of educational games during its development process. Keywords: Heuristics based, Playability, Evaluation, Heuristics Evaluation 1. Introduction Usability is a one of the main and core concepts that have emerged from the human–computer interaction (HCI) field. There are various definitions of usability, amongst them are ‘‘the capability to be used by humans easily and effectively’’ (Shackel, 1991), ‘‘quality in use’’ (Bevan, 1995) and ‘‘the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve goals in particular environments’’ (ISO., 1998). Widely used definition of usability is based on definition by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) “the extent to which the product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use” (ISO., 1998). Based on various definitions, researchers have developed various technique and criteria to evaluate usability and one of the commonly use technique is Heuristic Evaluation (HE). HE is a discount evaluation method commonly used to find usability problems at different development stages of a product. Heuristics are design guidelines which serve as a useful evaluation tool for both product designers and usability professionals (Nielsen, 1994). In the software productivity industry, heuristics have typically been used to evaluate the usability of interfaces (Nielsen, 1994). Heuristic evaluation involves a small number of evaluators inspecting a system according to heuristics or guidelines that are relevant for the system. Heuristic evaluation is a light-weight process that can be cheap, fast, and easy to apply in evaluation process. It can be used both in design and evaluation phases of development and can even be applied to paper-based designs before the first working prototype is created. HCI studies showed that using five evaluators may be enough to find most usability problems, adding more would reduce the benefit to cost ratio, and suggested that three may suffice (Rollings A., 2003). The HE technique has been emerged from evaluation of software (system and products) to one of the most popular applications nowadays which is games. A number of games based application have been developed in this decade since the realism for the function of computer games and simulation in varied areas such as education, training, medical and lot more. As education increasingly use computer and web based application such as eLearning and games in their learning process