Designing for usability

Week 10 Designing for Usability

what is usability?
is it useful? is it useable?

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what is usability?
Its about the relationship between tools and their users
the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
ISO 9241-11

the measure of the quality of a users experience when interacting with a product or system, at the user interface

Information Designer
Week 10 Designing for Usability

user-centred design or universal design?

Two philosophies:
User-centred Design is the process of designing tools and products from the perspective of how it will be understood and used by a user Universal Design is the process of designing tools or products which are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations l

then theres universal usability

Week 10 Designing for Usability

aesthetics vs. functionality debate

Week 10 Designing for Usability

aesthetics vs. functionality

Balancing two interrelated but sometimes conflicting elements aesthetics
presentation experience

"Aesthetic designs are perceived as easier to use than less-aesthetic designs

Lidwell 2003

functionality
usability informational
it makes little sense wasting time on its packaging
Nielsen 1993

Week 10 Designing for Usability

integrated approach
Broad or wholistic approaches that incorporate usability
Petterssons universal design: aesthetic, economic, & ergonomic
legible readable meaningful unity

Shedroffs sensorial design Lidwells hierarchy of needs

low-level needs before higher level needs

Week 10 Designing for Usability

Lidwells hierarchy of needs

functionality
reliability usability

proficiency
creativity

Week 10 Designing for Usability

definitions of usability
General
ISO924-11 standard efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction

Specific, web-usability
Nielsen, Shneiderman

efficiency, learnability, memorability, error reduction, satisfaction

Week 10 Designing for Usability

a layered model

Van Welies layered model of usability

Week 10 Designing for Usability
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efficiency
simplicity
make as simple and intuitive to use as possible

ease of use (usability literally)

speed, flexibility no tech support or user guides

learnability

familiarity consistency of design visibility predictability

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effectiveness
memorability
if you stop using a product or system for a long period of time, can you remember how to use it once you go back to it?

error reduction
how often do users make errors while using the system or product, how serious are these errors how do users recover from these errors?

accuracy
reliability

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effectiveness and efficiency

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satisfaction
is it useful? is it productive? does it fulfill its purpose? do you enjoy using the product/system?

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some examples
information design
don't confuse a site's organization, its information design, with the representation of its organization or its visual design. How a site looks is important, but the representation is ultimately not as important as its organization (Shedroff 1994)

experience design interaction design Design Museum

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user-friendly
is the product/system potentially inappropriate?

London 2012 Olympics logo designed Wolff Olins unveiled 4 June 2007 cost 400,000

Theres an old saying in the ad game: try not to give people seizures
Daily Show: London Logo Thursday June 7, 2007

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accessibility
accessibility is concerned primarily with making the content and functionality of web sites accessiblewithin reachto all users universal usability goes one step further, striving to make the content and functionality accessible and usable by all

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universal usability
Designing information & communication products and services usable by all regardless of identity and ability
different identities (age, culture, demographics, sexuality, gender etc) visually, physically, hearing and cognitive impaired relationship to accessibility

three challenges:
technology variety user diversity gaps in user knowledge

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usability evaluation methods

universal design
... is a design strategy that helps to reach the goal of ... Universal Access

heuristics evaluation or rule of thumb

Nielsons 10 heuristics, Shneidermans 8 golden rules used mostly by web developer/designers cost effective method biased by the preconceptions of the evaluators

Heuristics are useful but nothing is as informative as an actual empirical study with real users

user testing / inquiry methods

.

interviews, focus groups surveys task analysis

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common barriers to designing for usability

poor project management
cost time not consulting with users

users decide when a product is easy to use

not understanding users

people use products to be productive

not an iterative process Need drafts and road testing

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further reading
Australian Human Rights Commission, accessed 2 May 2011 at http://www.hreoc.gov.au/site/accessibility/index.html 10 Usability Heuristics accessed 3 May 2012 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWc0Fd2AS3s&feature=related Centre for Universal Design, available at http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/ Jacob Nielsens Useit.com, accessed 3 May 2012 at http://www.useit.com/ Lidwell W., Holden K. & Butler J. 2003, Universal Principles of Design, Gloucester, Ma. : Rockport, 2003. OConnor, P. 2005, Conflicting Viewpoints on Web Design, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, available at UTS lIbrary Catalogue eReadings Usability First, accessed 3 May 2012 at http://www.usabilityfirst.com/ Van Welie, M.1999, Breaking down usability, available at www.welie.com/papers/Interact99.pdf
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Week 10 Designing for Usability