Usability testing
Usability is defined by ISO DIS 9241–11 as “the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments”. As Jordan [1] (notes, a usability-based approach to user-centred design is “one which sees the product as a tool with which users try to accomplish particular tasks without wanting to have to expend unnecessary effort or endure any physical or mental discomfort.” The majority of the methodologies for evaluating usability were originally developed in psychology and have been adapted for usability testing in numerous contexts, including focus groups, incident diaries, questionnaires, interviews, think-aloud protocols, feature checklists and experiments [2] . We can distinguish between laboratory-based usability testing and field testing in “real-life” settings. The first is used to evaluate the degree to which test participants’ performance, under controlled conditions, meet pre-established usability criteria, while the second is used to better understand users’ responses to, and attitudes about, the prototype or product in the context of their own natural work environment [3] . For a description of a usability test, when and how to do them, see, e.g. [4] .
References
- ↑ Jordan, Patrick W. 2002. Human Factors for Pleasure Seekers. In Design and the Social Sciences, ed. Jorge Frascara. London and New York: Taylor & Francis Books Limited. Pp. 9-23: 10-11.
- ↑ Jordan, Patrick W. 2002. Human Factors for Pleasure Seekers. In Design and the Social Sciences, ed. Jorge Frascara. London and New York: Taylor & Francis Books Limited. Pp. 9-23: 11.
- ↑ Jordan, Patrick W. 2002. Human Factors for Pleasure Seekers. In Design and the Social Sciences, ed. Jorge Frascara. London and New York: Taylor & Francis Books Limited. Pp. 9-23: 29.
- ↑ Goodman, Elizabeth, Mike Kuniavsky, and Andrea Moed. 2012. Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research. London etc.: Elsevier: 273-326
