USABILITY

Learning Objectives
By the end of the lecture, you should be able to:
1) 2) 3) 4)

Define usability. List the importance of usability. Explain the attributes to usable system. Define usability engineering.

Create user interface software that you can maintain well, that is truly objectoriented, and that allows changes to parts without impacting everything Create user interfaces that people can actually use
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What is Usability?
The effectiveness and efficiency of the user interface and the users reaction to that interface.

What is Usability?
Ease of learning Ease of use Ease of remembering Subjective satisfaction Efficiency of use Effectiveness of use

Usability Goal
Promote communication between humans and computers. Make this communication doable or easy. (User Friendly)

The current state of e-commerce

What is Usability ? Shackles Approach (1990)

For a system to be usable it has to achieve defined levels on the following scales:
Effectiveness: performance in accomplishment of tasks. - Learnability: degree of learning to accomplish tasks. - Flexibility: adaptation to variation in tasks. - Attitude: user satisfaction with the system.
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What is Usability ?
Nielsen (1993) noted that usability applies to all aspects of a system with which a human might interact, including installation and maintenance procedures.

Definition of usability
a measure of the ease with which a system can be learned and used, its safety, effectiveness and efficiency, and attitude of its users towards it (Preece et al., 1994)

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What to Do With Usability?

Once we have a definition of usability, we would like to do something:
Demonstrate or evaluate existing systems Develop systems with a goal of usability

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Types of Usability Problems

Product doesnt match job or task Poor organization/layout Unexpected occurrence of events Product not self-evident Requires recall rather than recognition Inconsistent screens, messages, terminology Design is inefficient Cluttered or unattractive design No feedback or poor feedback about status or errors No exit or undo Help or documentation is not helpful

Problem
Programmers and users do not talk the same language..

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Problem
Programmers and users do not talk the same language..

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Problem
Programmers and users do not talk the same language..

1.1 Illustrating Example

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Is this a usable system?

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Is this a usable error message?

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Usability Problem Example: Inconsistent

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Some usability principles

Navigation I can find my way around Functionality I can do what I need to Control Im in charge Language I understand the terminology Help & support I can get help when I need it Feedback I know what the system is doing Consistency I dont have to learn new tricks Errors Mistakes are hard to make, easy to correct Visual clarity I can recognize things and the design is clear and appealing.

The Importance of incorporating usability

When computers were first introduced, users were limited to computer professionals or specialists. Now, the users are much more diverse. Companies have been adding more features and functionalities to their products to attract users, making the products more complicated.
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Importance (contd)
If consumers dont find a product usable, it may be abandoned. Usability plays a big factor in the competitiveness of products. Evaluating usability allows manufacturers to see how the product is doing in the market.

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Ten Golden Usability Rules

A great set of guidelines created by Jakob

Nielsen in his book Usability Engineering.

1. Use simple and natural dialog/language. User interfaces should be simplified as much as possible, since every additional feature or item of information on a screen is one more thing to learn, one more thing to misunderstand, and one more thing to search through. And the GUI should not overdo it with colour (= Less is more).

Ten Golden Usability Rules

2. Use language that fits the user group. The language should be based on users language and not on the system-oriented terms. Translation from one language to another is more than just words. Time, currency, phrases, metaphors, measurements, etc. must fit the culture of the user group.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

3. Minimise the load on short-term memory. Users should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions to the use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

4. Make the graphical user interface coherent and consistent. The same action should always have the same effect. Users will feel confident in using the system, and they will be encouraged to try out exploratory learning because they already have part of the knowledge needed to operate new parts of the system.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

5. Give the ability to use shortcuts. Accelerators unseen by the novices may often speed up the interaction for the experts users, such as: function keys, command keys, macros, etc.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

6. Give feedback to the user's actions.

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time i.e.
0.1 seconds user feels the system is responding immediately; 1 s. is about the limit users flow of thought will stay interrupted; 10 seconds is about the limit to keep users attention focused on the dialogue; so if the user has to wait longer the system should give feedback about the waiting time.

Warning messages should be used when the user is going to perform an irreversible action.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

7. Avoid error situations. Ask the user if s/he really wants to do the action especially if the action leads to serious consequences. Avoid having too similar commands in the interface. Commands whose actions are opposite should not be placed close to each other.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

8. Give clear exit marks. Users often choose actions by mistake and will need a clearly marked emergency exit to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Cancel should be offered when the operation will take a long time. In the navigation bars, the users should be able to back up.

Ten Golden Usability Rules

9. Give clear and understandable error

should be phrased clearly and avoid obscure codes messages should be precise, not vague or general messages should constructively help the user to solve the problem messages should be polite and not intimidate the user or put the blame explicitly on the user ILLEGAL, FATAL ACTION, JOB ABORTED! phrases should not be used.

messages. Simple rules for error messages:

Ten Golden Usability Rules

10. Give clear help and understandable documentation. Information should be easy to search, it should be focused on the users task. List the concrete steps that should be carried out. The help manual should not be too large.

Golden Rules for Bad UIs

Interesting and amusing reading from the SAP Design Guild: http://www.sapdesignguild.org/com munity/design/golden_rules.asp

Usability Engineering
A set of activities that ideally take place throughout the lifecycle of the product, with significant activities happening in the early stages before the user interface has even been designed

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Usability Engineering Process

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Usability Engineering Vs Usability

Usability engineering
Methodical approach to producing user interface A way to deliver a product that works

Usability
Attribute to usable system Principles of Usability

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Summary
What is Usability?
a measure of the ease with which a system can be learned or used, its safety, effectiveness and efficiency, and the attitude of users towards it (Preece, 1993)

Usability Engineering
an approach to SD in which the usability level of a system is specified quantitatively in advance, using metrics.

Summary
Usability Metrics
measures collected for describing usability of system

Usability Testing
assessment of usability of system, in terms of learnability, ease of use, flexibly, safety, effectiveness, efficiency, and attitude of users to system

Usability Labs
special purpose labs for conducting studies, video & audio facilities, observation of "subjects" ....

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Exercise
Choose any website Evaluate your GUI for your web-site (consider the usability principles). Perform your measurements, interviews, observations, etc. Summarize what you have learned in terms of usability principles. Redesign your original web-site concept. State how your design has changed as a result of the testing.

Types of Usability Problems

Product doesnt match job or task Poor organization/layout Unexpected occurrence of events Product not self-evident Requires recall rather than recognition Inconsistent screens, messages, terminology Design is inefficient Cluttered or unattractive design No feedback or poor feedback about status or errors No exit or undo Help or documentation is not helpful

Exercises
Define the concept of usability and usability engineering. Explain TWO (2) user interface design guidelines to support usability. Discuss how learnability and memorability principles support usability for word processing. [indicate how these principles have been applied for HCI]
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