Usability Lawrence Najjar

1. UsabilityLawrence Najjar

2. Outline • Purpose • Usability benefits • General usability principles • Usability process and activities • Common user interface project • Accessibility • Getting usability services • Usability resources • Summary • Usability lab tour

3. Purpose • Learn some usability principles • Get familiar with usability process, tools, and • techniques • Get exposed to accessibility • Learn how to get usability services

4. Benefits of Usability • Increase • User satisfaction • User productivity • Product acceptance • Product marketability • Decrease • Development costs • User errors and frustration • Training costs • Support costs • Maintenance costs (Karat, 1990)

5. Usability Benefits – Some Numbers • Estimated savings when software problem found and • fixed in early design phase rather than after delivery: • 100 times (Boehm, 1987) • Estimated amount of software code saved by • prototyping compared to not prototyping: 40% • (Boehm et al., 1984) • Rank of user involvement as predictor of successful • projects: 1 (The Standish Group, 1994)

6. Usability Benefits – Money • Estimated sales increase for SQL Explorer 5.0 vs. 4.0 • due to usability improvements: 25% (Landry, 2001) • Increase in e-commerce sales after improving usability • on IBM.com: 400% (Tedeschi, 1999) • Increase in daily online purchases after improving • usability on Dell.com: $33 million (Black, 2002)

7. General Usability Principles • Know your user. • You’re not the user. • Iterate. Iterate. Iterate. • Consistency is usability. • The user is in control. (example) • Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. • Make important stuff look important. • Avoid errors. (example) • Accessibility improves usability. (example)

8. Example for “User is in control” • Needs a “Skip Intro” hyperlink

9. Example for “Avoid errors” • Before • After

10. Example for “Accessibility improves usability”” • Before • After

11. Usability Process

12. Usability Activities

13. Example of “low-fidelity prototype”

14. Usability Activities (Continued)

15. Example of “high-fidelity prototype”

16. Usability Activities (Continued)

17. Common User Interface Project • Goal: Common visual “look” for all BMC products, • documentation, and marketing materials • Advantages: • Addresses customer preferences • Improves BMC branding • Improves ease of use • Decreases development time • Decreases QA evaluation time • Reduces maintenance costs • Status • Presented idea to various internal BMC groups • Got feedback from customers • Currently iterating Web-based design

18. Sample Web-based Concept

19. Accessibility • Required for Federal electronic and information • technology purchases by Section 508 of the • Rehabilitation Act of 1998 • Requires equivalent functional access for persons with • disabilities compared to persons without disabilities • Spreading beyond Federal government • Provides a marketing opportunity for us

20. Some Accessibility Requirements • “Color coding shall not be used as the only means of • conveying information, indicating an action, prompting • a response, or distinguishing a visual element.” • (example) • “When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow • people using assistive technology to access the • information, field elements, and functionality required • for completion and submission of the form, including all • directions and cues.” • “Support services for products shall accommodate the • communication needs of end-users with disabilities.”

21. Example of “color coding as only means of communicating info” • Before • After

22. Browser Accessibility • “A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be • provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element • content).” • “Row and column headers shall be identified for data • tables.” (example) • “Markup shall be used to associate data cells and • header cells for data tables that have two or more • logical levels of row or column headers.” (example)

23. Example of “associate data cells and header cells … two or more logical levels” • <TABLE • BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=1 FRAME=BOX • summary="This database status summary table • lists the Status, Office, Datasource, and DBMS • (column headings) and the regions (rows)"> • <CAPTION>Database Backups</CAPTION> • <TR> • <TH></TH> • <TH id="c2">Status</TH> • <TH id="c3">Office</TH> • <TH id="c4">Datasource</TH> • <TH id="c5">DBMS</TH> • </TR> • <TR> <TH id="r2">East Region</TH> • <TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD><TD></TD></TR> • <TR> <TD id="r3" ></TD> • <TD headers="c2 r2 r3">Failed</TD> • <TD headers="c3 r2 r3">New York</TD> • <TD headers="c4 r2 r3">zimbabwe : ZIM817MA</TD> • <TD headers="c5 r2 r3">Oracle 8.0.5</TD></TR> • . • . • . • </TABLE>

24. Browser Accessibility • “When pages utilize scripting languages to display • content, or to create interface elements, the • information provided by the script shall be identified • with functional text that can be read by assistive • technology.” • “When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or • other application be present on the client system to • interpret page content, the page must provide a link to • a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) • through (l).” • “A method shall be provided that permits users to skip • repetitive navigation links.” (example)

25. Example of “skip repetitive navigation links” <a href="#main"><img alt="Skip to main content" height="1" width="1" border="0" src="//www.ibm.com/i/c.gif"/></a> . . . <a name="main"><!--Main Content--></a> . . .

26. Getting Usability Services • Usability services include: • Getting usability person assigned to your project • Having usability person perform usability review • Creating visual designs • Getting assistance with accessibility • Contact: • Tony Haverda, manager, Interface Design and Usability • Tony_Haverda@bmc.com • Internal 2-6474

27. Usability Resources • BMC Usability Web site: http://usability.bmc.com/ • Feigenbaum, B. A. (2002, October 1). Coding for • accessibility – Use JFC/Swing to build accessibility into • your Java applications [On-line]. Available: • http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java/ • library/j-access/ • Hom, James (2003). Usability methods toolbox [On- • line]. Available: http://jthom.best.vwh.net/usability/ • Nielsen, J. Useit.com – Jakob Nielsen’s Web site [On- • line]. Available: http://www.useit.com

28. Usability Resources (Continued) • Sun Microsystems (2003). Accessibility quick reference • [On-line]. Available: http://www.sun.com/access/ • developers/access.quick.ref.html#apptips • Vredenburg, K., Isenssee, S., & Righi, C. (2001). User- • centered design: An integrated approach. Prentice • Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.

29. Summary • For maximum usability: • Start usability work early • Identify users and their objectives • Keep users involved throughout the project • Iterate designs quickly, easily, and cheaply • Evaluate usability with representative users

30. References • Black, J. (2002, December 4). Usability is next to • profitability. BusinessWeek Online [On-line]. Available: • http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/ • dec2002/tc2002124_2181.htm • Boehm, B. (1987). Industrial software metrics top 10 • list. IEEE Software, 4(5), 84-85. • Boehm, B. W., Gray, T. E., & Seewaldt, T. (1984). • Prototyping vs. specifying: A multi-project experiment. • IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 10(3), 290- • 333.

31. References • Landry, R. (2001, September 24). Usability ROI. BMC • internal memo to Neil Backes from Scott Isensee. • Statement by Rich Landry, SQL Explorer product • manager. • Karat, C.-M. (1990). Cost-benefit analysis of usability • engineering techniques. Proceedings of the Human • Factors Society, Orlando, Florida, 839-843. • Section 508 standards [On-line]. Available: • http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm

32. References • Tedeschi, B. (1999, August 30). Good Web site design • can lead to healthy sales. New York Times e-commerce • report [On-line]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/ • library/tech/99/08/cyber/commerce/ • 30commerce.html • The Standish Group (1994). The CHAOS report [On- • line]. Available: http://standishgroup.com/ • sample_research/chaos_1994_1.php

33. Thank You • To get a copy of this presentation: • Go to http://usability.bmc.com • Click on “Usability Brown Bag” • To get usability services: • Contact Tony Haverda, manager, Interface Design and Usability • Tony_Haverda@bmc.com • Internal 2-6474 • Usability lab tour!