Nielson's 10 Hueristics for IGN.com

1. User control and freedom

1.1. User is able to login using either account created from IGN or social networking site accounts.

1.2. Search bar to navigate through the site if unable to find a certain site material.

1.3. Content / advertisement confusion

2. Visibility of system status

2.1. User is able to see if the password or username typed is incorrect after trying to login as it will show "The username and/or password is incorrect. Please try again."

2.2. The error message does not specifically mention if the username or the password is incorrect

3. Consistency and standards

3.1. The colour theme for the website is consistent with the colour red, black and blue.

3.2. All the main parts of the website are placed above the websites so it is easy to navigate around.

3.3. The red bar of the news flash stops moving when the news is clicked.

4. Match between system and the real world

4.1. The different tabs is not represented by symbols, instead they use words.

4.2. When going back to the homepage, the link is represented by a symbol of a house.

5. Flexibility and efficiency of use

5.1. When editing thread, an editing tool will pop-up and do not have to load to another page.

6. Aesthetic and minimalist design

6.1. The login page contains no unneeded elements except for the red bar on the top. All text, graphics and controls are functional.

6.2. All the tabs on the top are not categorized clearly.

6.3. Most of the materials on the site are words.

6.4. The my account links are placed on both the top and bottom of the website.

6.5. Too much article on the homepage. It is clutterered

7. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

7.1. Enables users to cancel the login process if they decided not to login.

7.2. When user enter wrong username or password, it does not display as error code.

8. Help and documentation

8.1. There is no small tutorial to navigate through the site after login in for the first time

8.2. There is a help button on the boards section.

9. Error prevention

9.1. There is an undo and redo button while creating the thread.

9.2. User is able to edit thread once posted.

9.3. The tabs on the top are placed closed together.

10. Recognition rather than recall

10.1. Most of the links and contents are word based.