Why usability gets lost or usability in in-house software development

This study tries to shed some light on what happens to usability and occupational health issues in a bespoke software development project. Usability is an essential quality in software, in particular in a work context where poor usability and other risk factors related to the software and computers may cause health problems. We have interviewed a number of software developers, usability people and users about their attitudes to and practices for integrating usability and users' health concerns in software development. The interviews were conducted in two Swedish organisations with in-house development of bespoke software. Our main conclusion is that several factors combine to push usability and occupational health matters aside, some of which are attitudes to usability and users' health issues, unclear responsibilities, poor support for user-centeredness and usability in software development models, ineffective user participation and usability and users' health being ignored or forgotten in decisions about the software, its use and its design.     

Work-domain knowledge in usability evaluation: Experiences with Cooperative Usability Testing

Usability evaluation helps to determine whether interactive systems support users in their work tasks. However, knowledge about those tasks and, more generally, about the work-domain is difficult to bring to bear on the processes and outcome of usability evaluation. One way to include such work-domain knowledge might be Cooperative Usability Testing, an evaluation method that consists of (a) interaction phases, similar to classic usability testing, and (b) interpretation phases, where the test participant and the moderator discuss incidents and experiences from the interaction phases. We have studied whether such interpretation phases improve the relevance of usability evaluations in the development of work-domain specific systems. The study included two development cases. We conclude that the interpretation phases generate additional insight and redesign suggestions related to observed usability problems. Also, the interpretation phases generate a substantial proportion of new usability issues, thereby providing a richer evaluation output. Feedback from the developers of the evaluated systems indicates that the usability issues that are generated in the interpretation phases have substantial impact on the software development process. The benefits of the interpretation phases may be explained by the access these provide both to the test participants’ work-domain knowledge and to their experiences as users.     

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     

A Textual Feedback Tool for Empowering Participants in Usability and UX Evaluations

The usability movement has historically always sought to empower end-users of computers so that they understand what is happening and can control the outcome. In this article, we develop and evaluate a “Textual Feedback” tool for usability and user experience (UX) evaluation that can be used to empower well-educated but low-status users in UX evaluations in countries and contexts with high power distances. The proposed tool contributes to the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) community’s pool of localized UX evaluation tools. We evaluate the tool with 40 users from two socio-economic groups in real-life UX usability evaluations settings in Malaysia. The results indicate that the Textual Feedback tool may help participants to give their thoughts in UX evaluation in high power distance contexts. In particular, the Textual Feedback tool helps high status females and low status males express more UX problems than they can with traditional concurrent think aloud (CTA) alone. We found that classic concurrent think aloud UX evaluation works fine in high power contexts, but only with the addition of Textual Feedback to mitigate the effects of socio-economic status in certain user groups. We suggest that future research on UX evaluation look more into how to empower certain user groups, such as low status female users, in UX evaluations done in high power distance contexts.     

Anatomy of the design of an undo support facility

This paper presents decision making elements in an anatomy of the design of undo support in the GNU Emacs environment. Apart from providing design guidelines for undo support, it illustrates how to bring a design from an abstract conception to a concrete realization and how to balance trade-offs in the process. Undo support is a usability feature of interactive computer systems which allows a user to reverse the effects of executed commands. GNU Emacs was chosen as a suitable environment to demonstrate how to design undo support because of its sophistication and practical significance. User's opinions about which aspects of the existing undo support facility in Emacs need to be improved were solicited by conducting an informal survey among Emacs users. The results of the survey are discussed and were used to tailor a proposal for an improved undo support facility for Emacs. In order to test the adequacy of the proposal, it was subjected to an informal expert walk-through and a review of Emacs users opinions was conducted through a computer network. These evaluations are discussed and revisions to the proposal elicited. After the revised prototype of the design was implemented, a post-mortem evaluation was carried out and its results were incorporated in the final implementation.     

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.     

A method to elicit architecturally sensitive usability requirements: its integration into a software development process

In the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community, software usability has primarily been concerned with the presentation of information, more precisely with the user interface. However, some usability problems can prove costly to fix if the changes require modifications that reach beyond the presentation layer, namely those that cannot be easily accommodated by the software architecture. Taking into account some usability requirements earlier in the software development cycle, specifically prior to the architectural design phase, can reduce the cost of these modifications. There is a scarcity of methods and guidelines with the scope to direct users in eliciting the usability requirements that can impact the software architecture. This paper proposes a usability-driven adaptation of the quality attribute workshop (QAW) to assist software development organizations in discovering and documenting usability requirements. It shows how this method can be integrated into a software development process, by discussing how the existing software framework workflows can be adjusted to take this new activity into consideration. A preliminary exercise was conducted to help discern the utility and the limits of the proposed method. Participants with different levels of knowledge of usability and comprehension of the system being developed found the method constructive, as it guided them in identifying the architecturally relevant usability requirements. It also helped determine the usability aspects that would not necessarily have been defined if this technique had not been employed.     

Exploring the benefits of the combination of a software architecture analysis and a usability evaluation of a mobile application

Designing easy to use mobile applications is a difficult task. In order to optimize the development of a usable mobile application, it is necessary to consider the mobile usage context for the design and the evaluation of the user-system interaction of a mobile application. In our research we designed a method that aligns the inspection method “Software ArchitecTure analysis of Usability Requirements realizatioN” SATURN and a mobile usability evaluation in the form of a user test. We propose to use mobile context factors and thus requirements as a common basis for both inspection and user test. After conducting both analysis and user test, the results described as usability problems are mapped and discussed. The mobile context factors identified define and describe the usage context of a mobile application. We exemplify and apply our approach in a case study. This allows us to show how our method can be used to identify more usability problems than with each method separately. Additionally, we could confirm the validity and identified the severity of usability problems found by both methods. Our work presents how a combination of both methods allows to address usability issues in a more holistic way. We argue that the increased quantity and quality of results can lead to a reduction of the number of iterations required in early stages of an iterative software development process.     

Training software developers and designers to conduct usability evaluations

Many efforts to improve the interplay between usability evaluation and software development rely either on better methods for conducting usability evaluations or on better formats for presenting evaluation results in ways that are useful for software designers and developers. Both of these approaches depend on a complete division of work between developers and evaluators. This article takes a different approach by exploring whether software developers and designers can be trained to conduct their own usability evaluations. The article is based on an empirical study where 36 teams with a total of 234 first-year university students on software development and design educations were trained through an introductory course in user-based website usability testing that was taught in 40 h. They used the techniques from this course for planning, conducting, and interpreting the results of a usability evaluation of an interactive website. They gained good competence in conducting the evaluation, defining user tasks and producing a usability report, while they were less successful in acquiring skills for identifying and describing usability problems.     

OGITO,an Open Geospatial Interactive Tool to support collaborative spatial planning with a maptable

Maptables are increasingly used to support collaborative spatial planning processes. Despite the proven benefits and claimed potential of using a maptable in such processes, software applications specifically designed for this device are still scarce. Moreover, often-used applications do not fully exploit the touch functionality of a maptable, or have low usability. To address this gap, we developed and evaluated the Open Geospatial Interactive TOol (OGITO), an open-source software application designed to support collaborative spatial planning processes with a maptable. To develop such tool, we combined human-centred design and Agile software development principles in a co-design effort with intended users and stakeholders. Through iterative development cycles and feedback from users, OGITO was evolved until it satisfied user expectations. In a case study on community mapping in Sumatra, Indonesia, a sample of users evaluated OGITO's usability. Case study participants reported high satisfaction with this tool for the tasks and context given. Our research shows the added value of iterative development and user feedback for improving and further development of the tool's usability and functionality.     

基于投影的软件易用性评价方法

随着IT行业的不断发展,软件的易用性越来越受到用户和专家的关注与重视。如何科学地量化软件产品的易用性,进而对产品质量进行综合地测评,决定了软件产品的竞争力和用户的满意度。针对软件的易用性,提出了一种基于投影和直觉模糊理论的评价方法。首先,依据用户调查得到的信息,给出评价软件易用性的直觉模糊评价矩阵,并在此基础上建立了评价矩阵的理想决策。其次,借助群决策的框架,给出评价矩阵到理想决策上的投影。然后,基于投影给出测评软件的优劣序。最后,用一个测评实例展示出本方法的有效性和实用性。结果表明,本文提出的模型是一种软件质量综合评价的有效方法。     

‘Representing the User’ in software development—a cultural analysis of usability work in the product development context

It is widely accepted that users should be involved in the development of interactive systems. However, involving users in interactive systems development is challenging, especially in product development. The organizational culture is a key factor affecting the successes and failures of organizational change and development efforts. This paper shows how user involvement is intertwined with the organizational cultures in a case study of five software development organizations. User involvement is indirect in the case organizations, and labeled as usability work. Using cross case analysis, four ‘cultures of usability work’ are identified. The cultures have distinct cultural characteristics, employ different approaches to usability work, and have different preferences and strategies for the prospective facilitation of usability work. Sensitivity to the cultural context is identified as an important consideration in the facilitation of usability work, and culturally compatible strategies for usability work in different cultural settings are identified. The paper concludes that there might not be one ‘best, universally valid, context free way’ of introducing and carrying out usability work in software product development organizations.     

Metrics for evaluating human information interaction systems

Society today has a wealth of information available due to information technology. The challenge facing researchers working in information access is how to help users easily locate the information needed. Evaluation methodologies and metrics are important tools to assess progress in human information interaction (HII). To properly evaluate these systems, evaluations need to consider the performance of the various components, the usability of the system, and the impact of the system on the end user. Current usability metrics are adequate for evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction of such systems. Performance measures for new intelligent technologies will have to be developed. Regardless of how well the systems are and how usable the systems are, it is critical that impact measures are developed. For HII systems to be useful, we need to assess how well information analysts work with the systems. This evaluation needs to go beyond technical performance metrics and usability metrics. What are the metrics for evaluating utility? This paper describes research efforts focused on developing metrics for the intelligence community that measure the impact of new software to facilitate information interaction.     

Systematic evaluation of design choices for software development tools

Most design and evaluation of software tools is based on the intuition and experience of the designers. Software tool designers consider themselves typical users of the tools that they build and tend to subjectively evaluate their products rather than objectively evaluate them using established usability methods. This subjective approach is inadequate if the quality of software tools is to improve and the use of more systematic methods is advocated. This paper summarises a sequence of studies that show how user interface design choices for software development tools can be evaluated using established usability engineering techniques. The techniques used included guideline review, predictive modelling and experimental studies with users.     

Use and non‐use of VDTs—organization of terminal work: Research findings from Swedish cross‐site studies in the field of office automation

A group of users in Copenhagen were asked to evaluate how important a number of user interface characteristics were for them. The results show high importance of efficient daily use and of possibilities for exploratory learning while tutorial materials were of less importance. Users also were asked to evaluate four usability aspects of a number of popular programs. Results show that the quality pleasant to work with has the largest impact on evaluations of overall user‐friendliness while users seem able to view usability independently from the number of features in an application.     

WalkMap: Developing an augmented reality map application for wearable computers

We have designed, implemented, and evaluated a map application for wearable computer users. Our application, called WalkMap, is targeted at a walking user in an urban environment, offering the user both navigational aids as well as contextual information. WalkMap uses augmented reality techniques to display a map on the surrounding area on the user's head-worn display. WalkMap is constructed by the means of software development, user interface design and evaluations, and existing knowledge on how humans use maps and navigate. The key design driver in our approach is intuitivity of use. In this paper, we present the design and implementation process of our application, considering human-map interfaces, technical implementation, and human-computer interfaces. We identify some of the key issues in these areas, and present the way they have been solved. We also present some usability evaluation results.