INTRODUCTION
With increasing importance given to the product’s user experience in the recent days, it is essential to discuss about the reliability of usability evaluation methods. Usability evaluation methods are mainly used for identifying problems and assigning severity to them which will help the development teams in fixing the usability issues by priority. As we can see the final product usability depends a lot on the results of a usability evaluation and there has been a debate on the reliability of the evaluation methods which we have been using for long. In this paper I will be primarily discussing about the reliability of most commonly used evaluation methods (expert review, usability testing) and also discuss on the impact of evaluators experience on the usability evaluation. In the end this paper will include takeaways for the practitioner to follow in order to create increased reliability in the usability evaluation method being followed.
RELIABILITY OF USABILITY EVALUATION METHOD
Reliability of a usability evaluation method is measure of consistency in the results when used by different set of practitioners. In an ideal scenario we would expect usability evaluation methods results are independent of practitioners who use them and product being evaluated (Hartson, Andre, & Williges, 2001). But various studies have been performed to show that results varied significantly, and there has been no consensus amongst practitioners on major issues like: number of participants to choose for usability evaluation, when to use heuristic evaluation, when to use expert reviews etc. Usability practitioners new to the industry tend to go by the results of prior research conducted in these areas. Such use of prior experimental rese...
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At the combined parks of Universal Studios (US) and Islands of Adventure (IoA) patrons have been complaining that it takes too long to both purchase park tickets and then get through the entrance lines. According to managers of the park patrons have been giving conflicting data as to which is actually having a problem. Some say that US is slower than IoA where others disagree and claim IoA is indeed the slower of the parks. To get to the truth behind the issue we conducted an observational usability study where we spent a minimum of 30 minutes at each park’s ticket purchase and entrance lines measuring the time interactions relative to time.
A “front-end” evaluation is described as a “nothing to something” or approach of developing a program from the scratch (4). It is carried out at the start of a program when developing the themes. It involves generating input from the targeted population on their existing knowledge, their expectations and preparing to present such information so that it can be easily interpreted. A front-end evaluation involves conducting a baseline-needs assessment, utilisation of research and literature revi...
Klug, B. (2017). An Overview of the System Usability Scale in Library Website and System Usability Testing. Weave, 1. https://doi.org/10.3998/weave.12535642.0001.602
Usability is a critical portion of web design that one must be ever mindful of when constructing websites. Whether creating a personal web space or building multiple pages for a large corporation, it is the burden of the designer to guarantee people can access that content. According to the United Nations, disabled people compose roughly 10 percent of the world’s population (United Nations, 2010). Many regulations and standards have been set forth to provide disabled people with the same opportunities to access content available on the World Wide Web, as it is most of the World’s population.
Product usability testing has been around for quite a while now for the sole purpose of providing the consumers with the best product a company can. Some companies hire specific testing consultants who specialize in product testing and other companies just release beta versions of their product to a small market and collect feedback. Companies like Sony or Nintendo hire companies that test their products and make sure there are no problems with the product. Software companies, on the other hand, release test versions, also known as beta versions, of their products and improve their final product based on the feedback from the beta users.
The purpose of this component is to obtain the voice of the customer. In other words, this portion of the strategy seeks to understand the experience the customer had on the website. The experience analysis component aims to supplement the analysis of clickstream data. For example, clickstream data provides various information such as how many visitors the website had, or how long a customer stayed on the website. However, it does not state whether the customer had a pleasant time on the site. In order to retrieve information on the experience the customer had on the website, organizations must do research. Methodologies such as A/B testing, customer satisfaction surveys, and usability testing are forms of research that organizations should use to obtain the voice of the
For this research report I decided to study a journal article that explores how computer interfaces developed to simulate natural interactions impact the overall user experience, user learning, and attitudes. This research was done by Jeeyun Oh, Harold R. Robinson, and Ji Young Lee, and was published in March 2013.
In order to evaluate the website, the first aspect to be evaluated is in terms of the content. All the content intended appear in the website such as the details for each product. The product that being displayed on website is not slightly different than the real one; what you look is what you will see or get. The purpose of why this website is created had been stated in the IKEA Privacy Policy page. The IKEA website provides a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Even there are tonnes of pictures of product in some pages, but yet still can be considered that the content of the webpage is properly organized. People can just simply click on the item that they want to look out, as the image has been arranged in a grid and not jumbled up. Besides that, the customer also can download the IKEA catalogue and IKEA Home Planner software to view the product better. By using IKEA catalogue, it enables users to zoom in the product itself.
Quality is determined after final results are revealed. The essential part of this is the happiness of the consumer. The information systems project is a success and of good quality if the final results help improve performance and decision-making. Within the system, the quality depends on variables like accuracy, how user-friendly it is, and how suitable the data that it generates is. All of these examples relate to the HRP.
As indicated, usability is the ability of a user to find the information he/she seeks, process the information, and perform whatever functions as needed (Eccher, 2015, p. 7). The use of a navigation menu allows the user to peruse the website. There exist four primary pathways by which users are able to navigate a website: use of hyperlinks, streamline the navigation bar, keep sidebars separate, and include footers. Hyperlinks will be examined initially.
UCI Disabilities Services Center. (2003, February 2). Universal design and web accessibility. Retrieved September 17, 2003, fromhttp://www.disability.uci.edu/other_links/web_accessibility.htm
Manual testing is useful while we are doing usability testing and GUI testing. With the help of manual testing only the exact standard defined for effective usage and accessibility can be identified.
The contemporary world is indeed an information society. Computer technologies pervade virtually all aspects of human life today: at home, in hospitals, at school, in the office, or in the industries. More and more novel technologies continue to be added on the already existing ones. While the technological aspects are important, the human factors in the development of the software sued in these technologies have been overlooked. Human factors are an essential aspect of the software development process in order to ensure user safety, and ease of use. However, there has been a lot of attention on the technical aspects of the software development process at the expense of the human aspect. This paper examines the human-computer interaction aspect or the human factors involved in computer science, and particularly in software engineering. The paper will first define what human factors or human-computer interaction is, then a brief historical account of this field before looking at its importance.
The literature I found to be most relevant to the type of information that I deemed most important covered a websites ability to satisfy a customer having specific feedback goals from the website. In an essay written by Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir called, Design Usability:
Ho, M. R., Smyth, T. N., Kam , M., & Dearden, A. (2009). Human-Computer Interaction for Development: The Past, Present, and Future. Information Technologies & International Development.