Chapter 10 Usability

1. Chapter 10Usability

2. Usability • Refers to how successfully and satisfactorily a person uses a product, document, or website • Means that a product, document, or website is • Easy to learn • Easy to remember • Efficient • Satisfying • Error free

3. Usability focuses on the user’s interaction with a product, document, or website; it does not focus simply on the product, document, or website by itself

4. Usability in the Workplace • Can refer to either external or internal users • Results from “usability testing” • Tests the effectiveness of documents before the final document is produced

5. Usability and User-Centered Design • Is important because not all users are alike • Considers users’ skills, particularly those that implement emerging technologies • Is a means to give users the most satisfying and efficient experiences with documents or websites

6. Phases in DevelopingUsable Documents • Pre-design involves analyzing who the users are, what tasks they will need to perform, and the places in which these tasks will be performed • Usability Measurement involves users testing a product or website and providing information to designers about usability issues such as learnability or ease of use. • Iterative Design involves fixing problems discovered by users during the previous stage

7. Usability Tests • Begin with a planning session where test goals are clearly articulated and understood • Must use participants who represent the specified users of the document or product • Must engage in real tasks similar to those a real user would complete • Must be observed and recorded by experts • Must analyze the data received from the tests and change the document or website to make it more usable

8. Where Usability TestingTakes Place • In the lab — a controlled environment • Outside the lab — any room available • In the field — after a document, website, or product has been released and is being used

9. Planning, Conducting, and Reporting Usability Tests

10. Establish a Team • Of participants to observe closely and keenly • Of enough participants based on the size of the project • Of members who have an interest in learning more about the usability of the document • Of members each come to the project with different viewpoints

11. Define Parameters • Based on budget and time • Based on particular issues and concerns • Based on facilities available for testing • Based on the audience who will look at the test results • Based on other important information

12. Define the User Profile • By identifying the kinds of people who typically use the document or website • By making it specific and narrow for the best results • By defining different subgroups of users based upon frequency or expertise • By considering factors like user experience, stress, attitudes, motivations

13. Establish Issues & Goals • By considering concerns that team members have about the document or website being tested • By deciding upon a variety of central issues that guide the testing plan • By understanding users and their needs, desires, and preferences • By providing concrete and quantifiable means to measure test results

14. Write the Test Plan • To put everything down in writing • To allow others to see what the test will accomplish • To outline the test and its procedures • To clarify the issues and goals that make up the test • To show participants and timeframe

15. Recruit and ScreenParticipants • By contacting them directly or by hiring an outside consulting firm to recruit them • By clearly understanding the user profile • By looking for participants that fit the profile • By advertising for and/or searching for participants

16. Conduct the Testand Collect Data • By observing the participants engaged in tasks and accurately collecting data that derives from the participants’ work • By filming or using an appropriate technology • By taking notes during the test on pre-made data collection sheets

17. Administer Post-Test Questionnaires • To allow participants to provide feedback about their experiences • To solicit both qualitative and quantitative responses • To provide a neutral line of questioning for answers that are not led

18. Analyze Findings • To find problems that the team might have overlooked • To distinguish between identifying a problem and identifying the cause of a problem • To determine the severity of the problems • To classify the nature of problems, the causes of problems, and the severity of the problems

19. Report Results andMake Recommendations • By identifying the audience for the report • By choosing a format for the report that fits the audience • By using a cover letter, a summary, a table of contents, and appendices (when appropriate) • By summarizing methodology, results and recommendations (when appropriate)

20. Ethical Considerations in Usability Testing • Brief participants about the test process • Create unbiased questionnaires • Use consent and anonymous disclosure forms • Conduct testing in the field

21. Website Usability Challenges • Users may be hard to identify • Websites do not work in a linear fashion the way traditional documents do • Websites are more likely than print documents to use diverse color schemes, graphics, and images • Writing styles on websites differ from traditional documents