Business Process
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Why is Usability Important?
Usability has shifted from loose practices to an engineering discipline involving empirical methods and grounded in scientific theory Companies now hire teams
of professional experienced in psychology, human –computer interaction and human factors. Usability Professional Association (2005)
In website, leaving is the first option when a user encounters difficulty. If they can’t find it, they will leave. Nielsen(2003)
According to Nielsen J.(94) even tests that don’t seem significant should be done because it improves the quality of decision
significantly especially where you have an alternative of two interfaces, if testing is done it will improve decision making process. (Hugo, 2003)
Careful methods are normally expensive in terms of expertise and money therefore simpler methods stand a better chance
of actually being used in practical design. This method known as discount usability engineering [Nielsen 1989b, 1990a, 1993]
is based on the following techniques; scenarios, simplified thinking aloud and Heuristic evaluation.
1. ScenariosThe main aim of scenario is to reduce complexity of the implementation by eliminating part of the full system. (Sulaiman, 1996)
Since scenarios are small and easy to implement, they form a better method of getting user feedback because they can be changed frequently. Scenarios can be implemented as paper mock –ups
2. Simplified Thinking AloudThis is effectively done by interface designers and psychologists, it involves bringing in real users,
giving them test tasks and asking them to think aloud while performing tasks. According to Nielsen(94) between 3 to 5 users should be used to simplify the testing while achieving the benefits of using many users (Hugo, 2003)
Computer scientists are able to find usability problem even while using primitive methods. (Nielsen, 1992b)
Data analysis can be performed from notes taken by the experimenter, in traditional thinking a loud,
this is normally done by video recording, video recording and analysis. This takes a lot of time,
which should be spent on iterations between interfaces to improve it. (Pressman, 1992)
3. Heuristic EvaluationThese are rules and guidelines to follow in order to make the product more usable.
According to Nielsen (94), there are so many rules out there and so he gives 10 basic usability principles,
Visibility of system status, Match between system and the real world, User Control Freedom, Consistency and Standard, - Error Prevention,
- Recognition rather than recall
- Flexibility and Efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Help users recognize
- Diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and Documentation
References 1. Nielsen, J. (1994) Ten Usability Heuristics (Revised 2005) [online]. Available from http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html [cited on 12-03-07]
2. Nielsen, J. (2006) Severity Ratings for Usability Problems (online). Available from http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/severityrating.html[cited on 12-03-07]
3. Tog B., (2005) First Principles of Interaction Design. [online] Available from http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html [cited 30th April, 2007]
4. Nielsen, J. 1994b. How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation. Available in http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heurstic_evaluation.html. [cited 30th April, 2007]
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