Chapter 4
Expert Reviews, Usability Testing, Surveys,
and Continuing Assessment
Activity
Objectives:
Overview:
Planning usability
evaluations
Understanding specific targets for these usability goals also helps plan usability evaluation. The testing techniques selected may vary, depending on which of the characteristics you are most interested in. Some can be tested with early prototypes or even paper mockups, but others require working software or very high fidelity prototypes.
Characteristic |
Type of Usability Evaluation |
Efficient |
Time (or count clicks or page views) realistic tasks. Must use working versions of the software and plausible sample data. |
Effective |
Evaluate tasks for how accurately they were completed, and how often they produce errors. |
Engaging |
User satisfaction surveys or qualitative interviews can gauge user acceptance and attitudes towards the software. |
Error Tolerant |
Include task scenarios with potential problems in test use scenarios |
Easy to Learn |
Control how much instruction is given to test participants, or carefully recruit users with different levels of domain knowledge and experience. |
In planning usability evaluations, be sure that the most important characteristics are included, and tested in a realistic way. For example, if efficiency is the most important characteristic.
Directions:
Activity:
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