Usability Testing
Usability Testing of World Wide Web Sites
Bureau of Labor Statistics: The life cycle of Web creation is identical to that of traditional software: requirements gathering, analysis, design, implementation, testing, and deployment. And, just as traditional software development should have a functionality and a usability component, so should Web development efforts. Usability can be defined as the degree to which a given piece of software assists the person sitting at the keyboard to accomplish a task, as opposed to becoming an additional impediment to such accomplishment. (2000-12-10)Universal Usability Guide
This Web site provides the definition and foundation for the topic of universal usability in addition to introducing researchers and practitioners to five perspectives on universal usability. Universal usability involves understanding how users attempt to accomplish tasks using a variety of technologies in different organizational and social contexts. And researchers and practitioners have a wide range of approaches and methods available to apply to this range of user-system interactions. (2000-12-10)A Heuristic Evaluation of a World Wide Web Prototype
Bureau of Labor Statistics: This paper describes the use of the heuristic usability evaluation technique. One of the findings of the study was: "The biggest discrepancies were found in heuristic #2 (consistency) and heuristic #7 (progressive levels of detail). The UI experts found more consistency violations than did the developers, while the pattern was reversed for progressive levels of detail. One explanation is that developers were well acquainted with the application's intended functionality and so did not find inconsistencies to be particularly disruptive." (2000-12-10)Usability as a Goal for the Design of Computer Systems
Assessing usability is vital for those acquiring software packages as well as for those designing and developing software. The concept is also worth scientific research. Still, defining or measuring usability is problematic both in the course of system development projects and in research settings. The measures promoted by some recent usability studies are inadequate and even give rise to false assumptions. (2000-12-03)Rage Against the Machine
WebWord.com: Usability is about psychological research, data collection, and data analysis. It is not really about design, or marketing, or programming. Unfortunately, you need to be wary of companies that claim they do usability because many do not interact with users at all, and many do not do any research. Pay close attention to your business problems and when you are seeking out usability help, talk in detail about how the research is going to be conducted. (2000-12-03)Software is too hard to use
According to this ComputerWorld article "Next month, a group of corporate users, vendors and experts will convene in Redwood Shores, Calif., to test what they hope will become a common method for evaluating the usability of software. The report, which a vendor would present to users, is analogous to nutrition information and ingredients on a food package." (2000-09-04)Usability Tools: A Useful Start
According to this WebTechniques article "The best way to improve your site's usability is to observe your users interacting with it and then incorporate their feedback into your design. However, if you're inexperienced with facilitating usability tests or lack the resources to conduct a test, consider employing some automated usability tools that provide a head start in designing a more usable site." (2000-08-20)Usability InfoCentre
Web Site: The Frontend Usability InfoCentre is intended to introduce the principles of usability engineering and provide resources and information for companies undertaking usability engineering projects. (2000-06-04)Comparison of Usability Evaluation Methods
This chart provides a brief description of various usability test techniques and their advantages and disadvantages. (2000-06-04)End of the Hit Parade
According to this CIO magazine article " Investing any more money in your website without evaluating how well it meets the customers' needs—or whether it is delivering enough of an ROI to justify its existence—is about as stupid as investing in a website that tells the time. This story will give you tips on how to measure whether your website measures up." (2000-05-29)Best E-Tailers? It's a Mystery
Online retailers are starting to employ a time-tested tactic used by old-school retailers to ensure positive shopping experiences: the mystery shopper. For years, brick-and-mortar companies such Sears and Kinkos have hired third-party researchers to pose as customers and then report on their buying experiences, including in-store customer service, store appearance, and security. (2000-03-19)Usability Toolkit
This site contains information on usability testing techniques, participatory design, contextual inquiry and evaluation checklists. (2000-02-27)User Testing
CNET Builder.com walks you through the process of setting up and implementing a usability evaluation. You can conduct user testing anytime in your site's development cycle. Ideally, you'll do it several times during the planning and implementation phases, and then again after launch. (2000-02-20)cPulse
cPulse, A GartnerGroup e-company, is a ongoing site visitor satisfaction monitor providing continuous information in a simple, useable form. (2000-02-20)Industry Usability Reporting
In October of 1997, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated an effort to increase the visibility of software usability. The goals of the initiative are:
- Encourage software suppliers and consumer organizations to work together to understand user needs and tasks.
- Develop a common usability reporting format for sharing usability data with consumer organizations.
- Conduct a pilot trial to determine how well the usability reporting format works and to determine the value of using this format in software procurement.
Observing What Didn't Happen
In this Eye for Design article argues that "During usability tests, everyone notices when a user fails because a feature breaks down. We don’t need Holmes to solve these! But when expected things don’t happen, or illogical things do happen, it can mean that developers didn’t understand what the users needed, or how they would use the product." (1999-09-05)Getting Tough on Ease of Use
According to this Computerworld article "Right now, corporate information technology managers and purchasers have no standard way to assess the usability of the software they buy, but within a few years it may be a matter of simply looking at the box." (1999-09-05)Computer System Usability Questionnaire
This site contains a usability questionnaire that can be used to evaluate user satisfaction with a computer program. (1999-08-15)Web Test Dummy: Automating Web-Site Usability Testing With Agents
The WebTechniques.com article describes a software agent that evaluates some web site usability factors. The agent is given a task to find some specific information. In the process of finding the information, it evaluates download time, number of link on a page and the number of pages visited. (1999-07-04)Guide to Usability for Software Engineers
This University of Maryland web site contains an extensive body of link and information about usability testing and tools for developing user interface components. (Nov-27-98)European Usability Support Centers
This site contains information about user interface design and usability testing. (May-16-99)Servco Web Site - Online Articles and Links
The Useful Information section of the Servco website contains articles about usability testing (in PDF format) and links to other usability and Human-Computer Interaction web sites. (Nov-27-98)A quick guide to usability engineering resources
"This page refers to the work of relevant cross-sectorial usability engineering support projects in the EU Telematics Applications Programme. It is mainly directed at projects in this programme, although it's also relevant to other EC-funded programmes and the IT industry in general." (Jan-01-99)Surprises on the Web: Results from Usability Testing
This short online article describes the results of some preliminary usability testing on internet web sites.The Usability Methods Toolbox
This well organized site contains a brief description of the methods that can be used to evaluate the usability of a computer program. (Jan-04-97)Usability Professional's Association
This website has information about the Association and links to other sites that contain information about usability testing. (Jan-05-97)Usability Evaluation with the Cognitive Walkthrough
This online article describes a usability testing method that can be performed on a paper model by a design team. The authors contents that Cognitive Walkthrough is an effective method for identifying and eliminating some potential usability problems during the early stages of the design process. (Mar-12-97)Getting the Most from Paired-User Testing
This online article by Daniel Wildman appeared in Vol2 No3 of the ACM Interactions magazine. It examines the shortcoming of some types of formal usability testing and describes a test method that employs two users interacting with one workstation. (Jul-01-97)Focus on Usability
This article was published in the October 1996 edition of the Windows Tech Journal. The article describes the principles of usability testing and interface design some. (Oct-5-97)Usability Problem Identification Using Both Low- and High-Fidelity Prototypes
This article describes an experimental comparison of using low and high fidelity prototypes in usability evaluations. In the experiment, substantially the same sets of usability problems were found in the low- and high-fidelity conditions. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the proportion of subjects detecting particular problems in the low- and high-fidelity groups. In other words, individual problems were detected by a similar proportion of subjects in both the low- and high-fidelity conditions. The authors concluded that the use of low-fidelity prototypes can be effective throughout the product development cycle, not just during the initial stages of design. (Feb-01-98)The STC Usability SIG Website
This web site contains articles and information on software usability and the usability assessment of technical communication. (Sep-06-98)The WebMetrics Toolkit
The WebMetrics Toolkit is a group of programs that can be used to assess the usability of HTML documents. (Sep-06-98)