Understanding usability issues addressed by three user-system interface evaluation techniques

Three structured judgment evaluation techniques were applied to a system with a graphical direct manipulation style interface, to understand the types of usability problems they address. These evaluation techniques were cognitive walkthrough, heuristic evaluation, and the Smith and Mosier (1986) guidelines. The authors wanted to learn whether the techniques identify problems: across all stages of user activity, which noticeably affect users' performance with the system, and which are important to the usability of direct manipulation-style systems. Results showed that the cognitive walkthrough method identifies issues almost exclusively within the action specification stage, while guidelines covered more stages. The walkthrough was best, however, and the guidelines worst at predicting problems that cause users noticeable difficulty (as observed during a usability study). All the techniques could be improved in assessing semantic distance and addressing all stages on the evaluation side of the HCI activity cycle. To evaluate the directness of engagements, improved or new techniques are needed.     

Interface-usability evaluation: science of trade-offs

The effectiveness of four techniques in evaluating the usability of a graphical user interface is presented. The techniques are heuristic evaluation, usability testing, guidelines, and cognitive walkthrough. The techniques are compared as to the number, type, and severity of the problems each could identify for a specific product.<>     

Determining the effectiveness of the usability problem inspector: a theory-based model and tool for finding usability problems

Despite the increased focus on usability and on the processes and methods used to increase usability, a substantial amount of software is unusable and poorly designed. Much of this is attributable to the lack of cost-effective usability evaluation tools that provide an interaction-based framework for identifying problems. We developed the user action framework and a corresponding evaluation tool, the usability problem inspector (UPI), to help organize usability concepts and issues into a knowledge base. We conducted a comprehensive comparison study to determine if our theory-based framework and tool could be effectively used to find important usability problems in an interface design, relative to two other established inspection methods (heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough). Results showed that the UPI scored higher than heuristic evaluation in terms of thoroughness, validity, and effectiveness and was consistent with cognitive walkthrough for these same measures. We also discuss other potential advantages of the UPI over heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough when applied in practice. Potential applications of this work include a cost-effective alternative or supplement to lab-based formative usability evaluation during any stage of development.     

A home-page overhaul using other Web sites

The best prototype for designing a new user interface is your old user interface. The second best prototype is a competing product. Your competitors have invested significant resources in designing and implementing what they believe to be good user interfaces. You can glean much of what you need to create a new interface by examining products designed to solve similar problems. As with your own old user interface, you can analyze competing interfaces to see what works and what doesn't. You can also watch how users interact with competing products, and thus learn how they approach tasks. This, in essence, is competitive usability analysis. I recommend performing it very early in the usability engineering life-cycle-after you have visited the customer, gathered requirements, and defined the product vision, but before you design and prototype your new user interface     

中国农业银行网银表单的可用性问题研究

认知走查作为一种可用性研究方法,是专家将自己"扮演"成用户,通过一定任务对界面进行可用性评估。网上银行最基本的组成元素就是表单,其所有功能都通过用户与表单的交互来完成。本文就以认知走查为基本研究方法,设定一定的任务,查找现有中国农业银行网上银行(个人版)表单存在的可用性问题。最终将走查到的可用性问题汇总并提炼出具有一般指导意义的网银表单设计准则。     

Methods for inclusion: Employing think aloud protocols in software usability studies with individuals who are deaf

Usability is an important step in the software and product design cycle. There are a number of methodologies such as talk aloud protocol, and cognitive walkthrough that can be employed in usability evaluations. However, many of these methods are not designed to include users with disabilities. Legislation and good design practice should provide incentives for researchers in this field to consider more inclusive methodologies. We carried out two studies to explore the viability of collecting gestural protocols from sign language users who are deaf using the think aloud protocol (TAP) method. Results of our studies support the viability of gestural TAP as a usability evaluation method and provide additional evidence that the cognitive systems used to produce successful verbal protocols in people who are hearing seem to work similarly in people who speak with gestures. The challenges for adapting the TAP method for gestural language relate to how the data was collected and not to the data or its analysis.     

Using task analysis to improve usability of fatigue modelling software

The design of any interactive computer system requires consideration of both humans and machines. Software usability is one aspect of human–computer interaction that can benefit from knowledge of the user and their tasks. One set of methods for determining whether an application enables users to achieve their predetermined goals effectively and efficiently is task analysis. In the present study, a task analysis was applied to the graphical user interface of fatigue modelling software used in industry. The task analysis procedure allowed areas of usability improvement to be identified and then addressed with alternate interface prototypes. The present method of task analysis illustrates a practical and efficient way for software designers to improve software usability, user effectiveness and satisfaction, by involving users in the design process.     

Supporting usability through software architecture

Software engineers should consider usability as a quality attribute in their architectural a designs. Usability determines how effectively and comfortably an end-user can achieve the goals that gave rise to an interactive system. It is an important attribute to consider during all phases of software design, but especially during architectural design because of the expense involved in adding usability aspects after users have tested the system. Since the 1980s, ongoing work on supporting usability through software architectural constructs has focused on the iterative design process for the user interface, which involves initial design, user testing, re-design to correct detected flaws, re-testing, and so on. The traditional software architectural response to repeated and expected modifications to the user interface is to use separation, encapsulation and information hiding to localize the user interface     

Model mismatch analysis: towards a deeper explanation of users' usability problems

An evaluation method is proposed based on walkthrough analysis coupled with a taxonomic analysis of observed problems and causes of usability error. The model mismatch method identifies usability design flaws and missing requirements from user errors. The method is tested with a comparative evaluation of two information retrieval products. Different profiles of usability and requirements problems were found for the two products, even though their overall performance was similar.     

Preventing user interface disasters

Abstract

This article defines a quantitative goal that is cheap to measure for the usability of a business application system for casual users. The article also describes a cost-effective method for attaining the goal. The goal is to eliminate all user interface disasters (UIDs) in a given system. UIDs are usability problems that seriously annoy users, or prevent them from accomplishing their work without help from a human being. The method consists of series of simple user tests without audio or video recording, and with little analysis after each user test. The article concludes by describing Baltica's results of applying the method to a medium-size business application for casual users.     

Model-Driven Interactive System Design for Therapy Robots

Physiotherapy using intelligent robots is emerging as a new approach to recovery for many stroke patients. Although therapy robots have a strong potential in dealing with therapeutic and other medical applications, they have not been fully utilized in everyday therapy activities due to concerns over safety and the lack of friendly robot user/patient interaction models. From the viewpoint of software engineering, a user-centred design based on UML (Unified Modelling Language) has been known to be one of the best solutions to satisfy usability since the design process relies heavily on the analysis of users and their tasks to reach their goals. Therefore, a model-driven approach to interactive system design via UML for therapy robots is needed to make them usable in the real world. This paper proposes such approach and introduces a new graphical notation that describes user interface elements and the methods of connection with hardware/software objects. With the proposed abstract interaction models, prototyping interactive systems can be made faster and allows for their evaluation by users and system developers before implementation in order to improve usability from the perspectives of users and system developers.     

Investigating the usability of assistive user interfaces

A prototype e-mail system was developed for cognitively disabled users, with four different interfaces (free format, idea prompt, form fill and menu driven). The interfaces differed in the level of support provided for the user and complexity of facilities for composing e-mail messages. Usability evaluation demonstrated that no one interface was superior because of individual differences in usability problems, although the majority of users preferred interfaces which did not restrict their freedom of expression (free format). In contrast to traditional evaluation studies, no common pattern of usability errors emerged, demonstrating the need for customisation of interfaces for individual cognitively disabled users. A framework for customising user interfaces to individual users is proposed, and usability principles derived from the study are expressed as claims following the task artefact cycle.     

Model mismatch analysis: Towards a deeper explanation of users' usability problems

An evaluation method is proposed based on walkthrough analysis coupled with a taxonomic analysis of observed problems and causes of usability error. The model mismatch method identifies usability design flaws and missing requirements from user errors. The method is tested with a comparative evaluation of two information retrieval products. Different profiles of usability and requirements problems were found for the two products, even though their overall performance was similar.     

Product interface design: A participatory approach based on virtual reality

The usability of the user interface is a key aspect for the success of several industrial products. This assumption has led to the introduction of numerous design methodologies addressed to evaluate the user-friendliness of industrial products. Most of these methodologies follow the participatory design approach to involve the user in the design process. Virtual Reality is a valid tool to support Participatory Design, because it facilitates the collaboration among designers and users.The present study aims to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of an innovative Participatory Design approach where Virtual Reality plays a ‘double role’: a tool to evaluate the usability of the virtual product interface, and a communication channel that allows users to be directly involved in the design process as co-designers.In order to achieve these goals, we conducted three experiments: the purpose of the first experiment is to determine the influence of the virtual interface on the usability evaluation by comparing “user–real product” interaction and “user–virtual product” interaction. Subsequently, we tested the effectiveness of our approach with two experiments involving users (directly or through their participation in a focus group) in the redesign of a product user interface. The experiments were conducted with two typologies of consumer appliances: a microwave oven and a washing machine.     

Designing to seduce the user

Traditionally, human factors specialists have had a rather severe attitude toward human performance with computers: their goal was maximum throughput, often measured in transactions per minute. This attitude was justified when computers were mainly work-related; in some cases it still proves wise. For example, a usability improvement that shaves one second off the time it takes a directory-assistance operator to search a database for a telephone number saves several million dollars per year in the US alone. This performance-obsessed approach to usability led many early user interface experts to condemn the popular term “user friendly” with the argument that users didn't need “friendly” computers, they needed efficient designs that let them complete their tasks faster     

A parallel coordinates style interface for exploratory volume visualization

We present a user interface, based on parallel coordinates, that facilitates exploration of volume data. By explicitly representing the visualization parameter space, the interface provides an overview of rendering options and enables users to easily explore different parameters. Rendered images are stored in an integrated history bar that facilitates backtracking to previous visualization options. Initial usability testing showed clear agreement between users and experts of various backgrounds (usability, graphic design, volume visualization, and medical physics) that the proposed user interface is a valuable data exploration tool.     

Usability: Happier Users Mean Greater Profits

Historically, usability has been associated with the user interface, and human-computer interaction (HCI) professionals have tended to concentrate their work on it. Usability is, however, much deeper than the user interface. Usability refers to the complex set of choices that ends up allowing the users of the system to accomplish one or more specific tasks easily, efficiently, enjoyably, and with a minimum of errors.     

An investigation on Ribbon interface design guidelines for people with less computer literacy

In the recent years, there is an intense competition between software development companies to design better interfaces. In this marketing rat race, Ribbon interface came to make software user interface easier. After the introduction of Ribbon by Microsoft, it was widely used by various software development companies. Ribbon is a replacement for menus and toolbars and it tends to organize tools in tabs based on their similarities. Although Ribbon interface has many advantages, previous researches have shown that there are serious usability issues that hinder usage of Ribbon interfaces for users with less computer literacy. In order to solve Ribbon interfaces usability issues, this study tried to introduce Ribbon interface design guidelines by focusing on the issues related to users with less computer literacy. In this study two separate sets of moderated (in-person) usability testing were used. The first set evaluated the usability issues of an experimental Ribbon interface software in terms of both visual and cognitive issues. The second set was used to evaluate the Ribbon interface prototype that was designed based on the discovered usability issues in the first usability test. In order to ensure the validity of the data, the researchers tried to triangulate the data collection process by collecting data from different sources, namely, quantitative measurement of participants' performance, direct observation, and interview. Based on the comparison of the usability tests results which points out the factors that have led to participants' performance improvement in the prototype version, a number of guidelines are extracted for Ribbon interfaces. These guidelines are applicable to Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint and most of the software that can be developed with Ribbon interface. Putting these guidelines into action, self-learning would be promoted and learning issues of users with less computer literacy would be decreased.