USABILITY

BY
NORASHIKEN OTHMAN

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 Learning Objectives
What is Usability
Usability Goals
What makes usability usable
The Need of Usability Analysis
Assessing usability
2 ways assessing usability
2 types of information
Tools & techniques

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 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the Key Concepts: Human Factors,

Ergonomics, HumanComputer Interaction, and
Usability.
2. The need and Goals of Usability
3. Assessing Usability: Types, Tests, Methods, and
Process

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 Key Concepts

Human Factors

Ergonomics Human-Device/Machine/
Computer Interaction

Usability

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 Key Concepts

HUMAN FACTORS
Interactions between humans and
instruments/tools
Ergonomics
Human performance and interaction with
physical characteristics of tools/
machines/computers/systems
Focus on design for safety, comfort, and
convenience

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 Key Concepts

Human-Device/Machine/Computer Interaction
How people design, implement, evaluate
interactive computer systems in the
context of users tasks and works
Usability
How a product can be used to achieve
specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency,
and satisfaction

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 WHAT IS USABILITY?

Usability addresses the relationship between

tools and their users. In order for a tool to
be effective, it must allow intended to
accomplish their tasks in the best way
possible.
The same principle applies to products,
computers, machines, tools, device etc. In
order for these system to work, their users
must be able to employ them effectively.
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Product Development Phases

Definition of Conceptual
Need Design

?
Preliminary Detail Design &
Design Development

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 Usability touches each
phase of Product Development

Definition of Conceptual
Need Design

Usability

Preliminary Detail Design &

Design Development

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USABILITY GOALS

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 Usability Goals

Allowing users to focus on the task at

hand rather than on technology (= user
friendly)

Effectiveness : usefulness and safety of

technology in reaching goals:
completeness, accuracy, cognitive match,
tasks/functions allocation between human
and device/tools/machine/computer etc
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 Usability Goals

Efficiency of expenditure resources : time,

cost, productivity (error rates, learnability)

User satisfaction of interactions with

systems: positive perceptions about
usability and perceived benefits lead to
application acceptance and use

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 WHAT MAKES USABILITY
USABLE

Ease of Learning
How fast can a user who has never
seen or used this interface before use
it sufficiently.
Efficiency of Use
Once an experienced user has learned
to use the system, how fast can he/she
accomplish task

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 WHAT MAKES USABILITY
USABLE

Memorability
Can a user remember enough to use it effectively to
the next time, or does he/she have to start over.
Error Frequency and Severity
How often do users make errors while using the
system, how serious are the errors, and how do users
recover from the errors.
Subjective Satisfaction
How much does the user like using the system.

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 THE NEED FOR USABILITY ANALYSIS

The need arises when were faced with the following kinds of
questions during design:
Will the operator be able to handle emergency telephone
calls faster than before?
Have we simplified the design of this ticket machine to a
point where people will use it successfully on their first
attempt?
Is the small size of this screen target
going to result in a significant number of errors in selecting
it?
If the user invokes this command by mistake, will he or she
find the escape route?
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 THE NEED FOR USABILITY ANALYSIS

Will the word-processor user remember that there are three

different ways of changing the properties of a formatting style?
Is it so difficult to change the layouts of menus that hardly any
users will bother?
Once the system is set up to support work-groups of a
particular size and structure, how much effort is involved in
changing the system to support changes in the group?
How many of the people who try the system
will actually continue to use it?
To answer these questions, we analyze the
design in terms of its usability.

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 USABILITY FACTORS

The speed of performance of the activity, which affects how

many people are needed to perform it
The incidence of errors while performing the activity
The users ability to recovery from errors that occur
The magnitude of the users task in learning to use the system
The users retention of learned skills
The users ability to customize the system to suit their way of
working or the situation of use
The ease with which people can reorganize activities supported
by the system their own activities and other peoples
Users satisfaction with the system.

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 Breakout #1

Divide into your groups

Do the following:
Watch the demonstration video.
List all the usability issues you can identify in the
use of this product.

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 ASSESSING USABILITY
Using Human Factors Tools & Techniques

Information
is
the
Empirical Analysis
Focus Groups

Guidelines
Video Analysis Prototyping

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 ASSESSING USABILITY

Two ways of assessing usability

Analytically - by simulating how the users

activity will be performed

Empirically - by building and testing a

prototype

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Analytical methods have advantages:
We can test designs that we cant build
We can save time by not building a prototype
We dont need to plan and conduct an
experiment
In other words, they can be used more
quickly, earlier in the design
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Empirical methods have advantages:
We receive more precise information about how
a user will interact with the product
We can see major flaws easier and therefore
reducing modifications to the product once it is
fielded
In other words, it will provide richer information;
however, there is are also increased costs
associated with the experimentation

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Two Type of Information

Qualitative

Quantitative

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 Tools & Techniques
Questionnaires
Quantitativ
Anthropometrics
e

Task Analysis

Cognitive Walkthrough

Heuristics
Detailed
Focus Groups
Prototypes Design
Interviews Function Allocation

Guidelines
Qualitative
Definition of Conceptual Preliminary
the Need Design
|
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 Questionnaires

Purpose: Useful for reaching large

populations and thus gathering large
amounts of data
Issues to consider in design:
The need to make things easy for the subject.
The need for unambiguous questions.
The need to gather precise data.
The need to support the intended analysis.

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 Focus Groups

Purpose: Useful for reaching target groups

of users to get consensus information on
product information
Method:Facilitated workshops of groups of
5-10 people - current or likely users
Type of Information:subjective (tasks,
requirements, product ideas, etc.)

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 Function Allocation

Purpose: To determine the allocation of all functions to either humans or

machines.

Human and machines have different capabilities (strengths and limitations).

e.g.,

Human
complex pattern recognition (e.g.,
aerial photography)
unexpected events
adapting to decisions to situational
requirements (e.g.,
emergencies)
concentrate on important activities
in overload conditions
Machine
sensing outside range of
human sensitivities
predefined infrequent events
rapid and consistent responses
to a given input
perform several activities
simultaneously

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 Function Allocation Strategy
Mandatory - system requirements, safety, legal or labor
constraints, etc.

Balance of value - assignment based on relative

performance

Utilitarian - human is available and is capable

Cost-based - relative cost of performance

Affective and cognitive support meaningful work and

maintaining adequate knowledge of the system
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 Guidelines
Purpose: Guidelines provide us with advice on the
solution of design problems.

They suggest possible solution strategies.

Each guideline has a context or domain within
which it applies.
Guidelines act as heuristics, drawing on
assumptions derived from past experience.
In many cases, the experience we draw on
includes empirical research.
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 Roles of Guidelines

Raising awareness of concepts

Assisting in design choices

Offering strategies for solving design problems

Supporting evaluation

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 Limitations of Guidelines
Problems in selecting guidelines:
the tendency to apply the first guideline that seems
relevant
Problems in applying guidelines, e.g., from Tullis (1988):
Example: Reduce search times by minimizing the number of
groups of items while designing each group to subtend a
visual angle as close as possible to 5 degrees
Does this apply to our problem?
Will it have the desired effect?
Will the resulting design really be more
usable?

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 Contexts of Guideline Use
Check the guideline against the problem
statement:
Is the guideline appropriate to the activity that
the design is to support?
Is it applicable to the type of user who will
perform the activity?
Does it address the particular levels of support
or usability factors that determine the success
of the design?
Is it appropriate to the form of solution chosen?
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 Guideline Categories

Five contexts that cover the spectrum of guideline use:

General principles that apply to any user interface

Guidelines that apply to forms of solution for interactive
display layouts, including those that use color
Guidelines for use with specific interaction styles
Sets of guidelines offered in style guides associated with
proprietary systems and standards
Guidelines for the design of individual user interface
components supporting particular user tasks.

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 General Design Principles
Two universal principles:
Design with a view to supporting the users task or process.
Know the user (Hansen, 1971 in Newman and Lamming,1995).
Suggested general principles:
Shneiderman (1992) Nielsen and Molich (1989)
Strive for consistency. Be consistent.
Enable frequent users to use Provide short cuts.
shortcuts.
Offer informative feedback. Provide feedback.
Design dialogues to yield closure. Good error messages.
Offer simple error handling. Provide clearly marked exits.
Permit easy reversal of actions. Support internal locus of control.
Reduce short-term memory load. Minimize user memory load.
Simple and natural dialogue.
Speak the users language.
Prevent errors.

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 Examples of Guidelines
Make all facets of design consistent with user expectations considering
both the users prior experience and well established conventions, such
as symbology
Design workstations, controls, and displays around the basic capabilities
of users regarding such characteristics as strength, dexterity, memory,
reach, visual acuity, and hearing
Be sure that auditory signals are well within users threshold values for
amplitude and frequency considering the effects of ambient noise
Be sure the brightness of visual signals must be sufficient to be
perceived by users working under various conditions of ambient
illumination and that the brightness and contrast are adequate to
optimize legibility
Be careful that labels and displayed information are easy to read from
the typical viewing angles and distances. Symbol size, contrast, color,
and display depth must be considered.

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 Examples of Guidelines
Ensure abbreviations, symbols, text, and acronyms placed on, or displayed
by, the device are also used in the instructional manual
Design control knobs and switches to correspond with both general
conventions and any that are unique to the user population
Arrange and design knobs, switches, and data-entry key in a way that reduces
the likelihood of accidental activation
Use color and shape coding to facilitate the rapid identification and
discrimination of controls and displays. Color and codes should correspond to
universal industry convention.
Space keys, valves, and control knobs sufficiently apart for easy manipulation.
This will also reduce likelihood of accidental
activation.

Push the

GO One Way Button

down

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 Anthropometrics
Purpose: The workplace should be suited to the human
operator.

Method: There is enormous variation between individuals. The

most important differences in size are due to sex, age, and
race.

Type of Information: 5th, 50th, & 95th percentile measurements

of body, strength, and joint rotations.

Source of Information: Anthropometric data tables

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Performance Task Analysis

Time
Errors
Quality
Quantity
Workload, etc.

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 Methods of Performance
Analysis

Three widely-used methods:

GOMS analysis methods, including keystroke-

level analysis

Heuristic evaluation: introducing walkthrough and

performance analyses as needed

Cognitive walkthrough, in which performance

analysis is folded into the sequence analysis

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 Two Stages of Analysis

We are making predictions about how a

human activity, performed as a sequence of
steps, will be supported.

So:
1. We must establish the sequence of steps
2. We must analyze the performance of each step

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 GOMS Analysis

Analysis in terms of four components of the

activity:
Goals that users are trying to achieve

Operators, i.e., basic actions that users perform

Methods employed by users to attain goals,

made up of sequences of operators

Selection rules for choosing between methods

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 Heuristic Evaluation
Can be applied to problems where GOMS and Cognitive Walkthrough are
unsuitable, i.e.:
(a) method of operation is not fully predictable, and
(b) user is not a complete novice
The Heuristic Evaluation method:
employ a team of evaluators to identify problems in the design
provide a list of heuristics (general guidelines) to guide their evaluation, e.g.:

Simple and natural dialogue Provide clearly

marked exits
Speak the users language Provide short cuts
Minimize user memory load Good error
messages
Be consistent Prevent errors
Provide feedback

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 Advantages of Heuristic Evaluation

Low cost

Intuitive to perform

Requires little training

No advance planning required

Can be used early in the design process

Provides high-level evaluation, but inherently less

repeatable than other analysis methods

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 Alternate Set of Heuristics
Learning:
Help and Documentation:
design for use without documentation
provide easy-to-use task-oriented documentation
Adopt the Users Viewpoint:
speak the users language (avoid jargon)
make use of existing knowledge
Simple and Natural Dialogue:
avoid extraneous information, steps, actions
information should be in a logical, natural order
Design for Advancement:
provide shortcuts (quick keys, customization)
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 Alternate Set of Heuristics
Adapting to the User:
Provide Maps and a Trail:
give the user a way to preview where to go and what will happen
give the user a way to review and return to previous contexts
Show the User What is (Not) Possible:
provide affordances to indicate what can be done
Intuitive Mappings:
design good response compatibility between controls and actions
Minimize Memory Load:
remove the need to remember across dialogues
provide multiple views for easy comparisons
Consistency in the System and to Standards:
make sure the same term / action has one
meaning
when there is no better way, conform to a
standard

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 Alternate Set of Heuristics
Feedback and Errors:
Feedback:
provide timely feedback about all processes and system status
Prevent Errors:
make it difficult to make errors
Error Messages:
diagnose the problem and suggest a solution
Clearly Marked Exits and Error Recovery:
make sure the user can get out of an undesirable state easily
design assuming that people will make
errors and need to recover previous states

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 Heuristic Evaluation

Find evaluators:
independent usability AND application experts.
Apply heuristics:
apply each heuristic to many parts of the system.
apply heuristics while completing benchmark
tasks.
Enter violations into a database or form:
evaluator records problems or observer takes
notes on evaluator.
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Heuristic Evaluation
Number Problem ID

Task What task (ID) were you working on?

Problem Describe the problem. Use the first line as a summary.

Heuristic What heuristic(s) (ID) were violated?

Severity Rate the problem severity.

0=none 1=cosmetic 2=minor 3=major 4=catastrophic
Generality Rate how widespread is the problem:
1=single-case 2=several-places 3=widespread
Solution Suggest solution(s), noting tradeoffs.

Evaluator Add an evaluator ID if needed.

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 Breakout #2

Divide into your groups

Using the provided devices:

PART 1: perform a heuristic evaluation using the
calculator to perform the following math function
to solve for y.
y = (3)2 * (40)-6 + 1000 7*100 + (-100)
PART 2: perform a GOMS analysis of the setting
the time on your watch to central time.

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 Cognitive Walkthrough Analysis
Purpose: A method for analyzing walk-up-and-use interfaces for ease of
learning by first-time users. .

Based on a model of exploratory learning :

The user starts with a rough plan of what he or she wants to
achievea task to be performed;
The user explores the system, via the user interface, looking for
actions that might be contribute to performing the task;
The user selects the action whose description or appearance
most closely matches what they are trying to do;
The user then interprets the systems
response and assesses whether progress
has been made towards completing the task.

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 Determining the Sequence
Earlier, we discussed two methods of analysis:
Analytically - by analyzing the options available
to the user at each stepa form of Walkthrough
Empirically - by studying how the user performs
the activity, and choosing a representative
(benchmark) sequence.
Walkthroughs play a double role:
in determining the sequence analytically
in performing step-by-step analysis of
performance
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 Steps in Conducting a Cognitive Walkthrough

Identify what the user is trying to do, and then ask the following
questions repeatedly:
Q1: Will the correct action be made sufficiently evident to the user?
Q2: Will the user connect the correct actions description with what they
are trying to do?
Q3: Will the user interpret the systems response to the chosen action
correctly, i.e., will they know if they have made a right or wrong
choice?
The result is to expose design flaws that may interfere with exploratory
learning.
The method is best applied by small teams walking through the design
together.

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 Observation

Field study versus laboratory study

Video recording
Concurrent verbal protocols
Passive observation

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 Prototypes
Purpose (Newman and Lamming, 1995) :
design and implement a complete user interface, so
that the system can be tested on externally valid
tasks
to do this under tight time constraints, by making
use of appropriate prototyping tools.

Type of Information:
discovering problems in the design
that were not apparent on paper.
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 Prototype Stages
1. Identifying key properties. We focus on properties identified in the problem
statement or in early requirements documents.
2. Developing the prototype. All we need is a prototype that
a) has the functions to support the tasks of interest
b) has the performance to allow a realistic test and
c) has enough robustness to survive each test without serious failure.
3. Experimental design. We need a small number of users, to whom we set a
suitable range of benchmark tasks, chosen to exercise the prototypes
functionality as fully as possible.
4. Collecting data. Direct observation and recording of video and concurrent
protocols are especially effective.
5. Data analysis. The good and bad features of the
design will probably be obvious right away; we may
also take simple performance measurements.
6. Drawing conclusions. The primary outcome of
informal testing is a list of design changes.

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 Summary
Quantitativ
Questionnaires
e
Anthropometrics
Empirical Analysis - DV&V,
Clinical Field Studies
Cognitive Walkthrough
Task Analysis
Heuristics
Focus Groups Prototypes Detailed
Functional Models Design
Interviews

Qualitative Function Allocation

Definition of Guidelines
the Need
| Conceptual Preliminary
Q.F.D.
Design
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