UX: Do you know The Bastien and Scapin?

The Bastien and Scapin criteria make it possible to analyze UX issues and identify areas for optimization to improve the user experience.

Are you doing a UX audit? You do not know where to start? The Bastien and Scapin criteria make it possible to identify ergonomic issues and to emit avenues for optimization thanks to a set of heuristics. Discover these criteria which will allow you to guide your analysis.

THE ORIGIN OF THE ERGONOMIC CRITERIA OF BASTIEN AND SCAPIN

These ergonomic criteria are the result of the joint work of two researchers in ergonomic psychology and cognitive ergonomics, Christian Bastien and Dominique Scapin. Bastien and Scapin took an interest in user experience and Human-Machine interfaces. Released in 1993, these criteria have become, over the years, a reference tool for user-centric interface design.

This study culminated in 1997 in a summary in the form of an INRIA research report grouping together 18 criteria divided into 8 dimensions.

BASTIEN AND SCAPIN CRITERIA

Here is the list of Bastien and Scapin criteria gathering a set of heuristics:

Guidance

Advice, guide, inform and guide the user during his interactions with the computer.

We find in the Guidance, 4 sub-criteria namely Incentive, Grouping / Distinction between Items, Immediate Feedback, and Readability.

Incentive

These are the means implemented to encourage users to perform specific actions. This criterion also corresponds to the information made available to users in order to identify the state or context in which they find themselves.

• Grouping / Distinction between Items

This is the organization of information items taking into account the topology, in other words, the location, as well as the format.

• Grouping / Distinction by location

This criterion concerns the positioning of items with one another in order to distinguish whether they belong to the same class or not.

• Grouping / Distinction by format 

The objective of this criterion is always to be able to distinguish membership or non-membership thanks to the graphic characteristics (color, format, etc.).

• Immediate Feedback

Immediate Feedback refers to the response of the computer after the actions triggered by the user. The computer must respond as quickly as possible with an appropriate and consistent response time.

• Readability

This criterion concerns the presentation of information on the screen that may hinder or facilitate the reading of this information.

Workload

Optimize clicks and ensure that there is no information overload. We find, in the Workload, 2 sub-criteria namely Brevity and Information Density.

• Brevity

The Brevity criterion concerns the workload at the perceptual and memory level for both the individual input or output elements and the input sequences. Thus, it is a question of limiting the work of reading, input, and the stages through which users must pass.

• Concision

This criterion also concerns the workload at the perceptual and memory level with regard to the individual input or output elements.

• Minimum Actions

This criterion concerns the workload in terms of the actions necessary for the accomplishment of a task. Thus, it is a question of delimiting as much as possible the steps to accomplish a task for the user.

• Information density

This is to limit the informational load for the user. This concerns the workload from a perceptual and memory point of view, for sets of elements and not for items.

Explicit control

This criterion concerns, first of all, the taking into account by the system of the explicit actions of the users than the control that the users have over the processing of their actions. There are 2 sub-criteria: Explicit Actions and User Control.

• Explicit actions 

The Explicit Actions criterion concerns the relationship that may exist between the operation of the application and the actions of users. In other words, the user has control over the processing.

• User Control

It is a question of leaving the freedom to the user to control the progress of his actions and to warn him of the actions in progress over which he has no control.

Adaptability

Respond according to the context, needs, and preferences of users. Two sub-criteria: Flexibility and Consideration of the user experience.

• Flexibility

This criterion concerns a set of means made available to users to personalize the interface in order to reflect their strategies or work habits and the requirements of the task. In other words, the more ways to perform an action, the greater the chances that the user is in control.

• Consideration of user experience

This criterion concerns the means implemented to respect the user’s level of experience. User experience through an interface may differ from user to user. Therefore, one should take into account the experience level of each user.

Error management

Reduce, avoid, and correct errors when they occur. There are 3 sub-criteria: Protection against Errors, Quality of Error Messages, and Correction of Errors.

• Error Protection

The Protection Against Errors criterion concerns the means put in place to detect and prevent errors in actions or commands or actions with harmful consequences.

• Quality of Error Messages

This criterion concerns the relevance, ease of reading or listening, and the accuracy of the information given to users on the nature of the errors made (syntax, format, etc.) and on the actions to be taken to correct them. Indeed, the quality of the messages favors the learning of the system by the user and makes it possible to guide him.

• Correction of Errors

This criterion concerns the means made available to the user in order to correct errors.

Internal consistency

Be understandable and consistent in the choices made.

External consistency (Significance of Codes and Denominations) 

Facilitate the understanding of the actions of the user in the interactions he faces with existing standards.

Compatibility

It is the ability of an application to integrate into actual user activity. This criterion measures the suitability of the application with the work environment in which it is used. The objective is to reduce the transfer of knowledge necessary to move from the profession to the application. The logic of the use of the system must therefore correspond to the logic of the user.

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE BASTIEN AND SCAPIN CRITERIA

The heuristics of Bastien and Scapin bring many advantages in the analysis of an interface:

• Identify usability issues;
• Evaluate the impact of ergonomics problems on the user journey;
• Use heuristics according to your needs in a customized way;
• Structure and categorize the problems to facilitate the identification of areas for improvement;
• Make an analysis credible by relying on a recognized set of rules;

Heuristic evaluation using Bastien and Scapin criteria is an intuitive and quick method to set up. In addition, its speed of execution frees up time on other analysis tasks. The findings made during an ergonomic audit are more reliable because the auditor is based on a grid of defined criteria which allows for a unified vision.

THE LIMITS OF THE BASTIEN AND SCAPIN CRITERIA

The heuristic method still has some flaws:

• The method does not replace a user test that will detect it;
• The criteria allow us to detect ergonomic problems but do not provide concrete solutions;
• The method does not identify interface development issues;

IN SUMMARY

The Bastien and Scapin criteria are to be used before designing the interface such as a website or a mobile application, but also during creation and afterward to control.

Criteria are used to set a rule in UX analysis, a very common tool among UX designers. This ergonomic guide, coupled with market research and data inspection, is an excellent way to audit the elements of a user interface. “Or” This ergonomic guide is an excellent guide to help audit the elements. a user interface.

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