Introduction to Usability

Introduction to Usability …
and a whole lot more

Eric F. Shaver, Ph.D.
May 24, 2010

1

Overview
 Introduction

 Overview of Human Factors & Ergonomics

 What is Usability?

 UX, UE, & UCD - How Do They Fit Together?

 Evaluation Methods

 Additional Resources

2

Who am I?
 Education
• University of Idaho
 B.S. – Psychology
 M.S. – Human Factors Psychology
– Risk compensation and personality differences: Identifying differences
between risk compensators and non-risk compensators.

• North Carolina State University
 Ph.D. – Ergonomics Psychology
– Evaluating the influence of presentation modality on the
communication of pharmaceutical risk information in direct-to-
consumer (DTC) television commercials

 Professional Involvement
• Affiliate Assistant Professor of Psychology (U of I)
• HFES
3

Who am I?, cont.
 www.thehumanfactorblog.com

4

Benchmark Research & Safety (BRS)
 Founded in 2000

 Locations: Moscow, Boise, Portland, & Grand Junction

 Educational backgrounds
• Psychology
 Human Factors & Ergonomics
 Experimental
• Engineering
 Mechanical
 Electrical
• Computer Science
• Anthropology

5

BRS – Work We Do
 Human Factors & Ergonomics
 Usability & User Experience
 Web-Technology Development
 Research
 Product & Occupational Safety
 Litigation Support & Expert Testimony
 Training & Education
 Program Administration

6

Overview of Human Factors
& Ergonomics (HFE)

7

What is HFE?
 HFE is a unique scientific discipline that systematically
applies the knowledge of human abilities and limitations
to the design of systems with the goal of optimizing the
interaction between people and other system elements
to enhance safety, performance, and satisfaction.

 In simpler terms, HFE focuses on designing the world to
better accommodate people.

8

Origins of HFE

Psychology

Industrial
Anthropology
Design

Operations Applied
Research Physiology
Human
Factors &
Ergonomics

Environmental
Statistics
Medicine

Computer
Engineering
Science

9

Industries Benefiting from HFE
 Aerospace  Health care
 Automotive  Manufacturing
 Chemical  Mining
 Computer  Nuclear
 Consumer products  Petroleum
 Construction  Telecommunications
 Defense  Textile
 Forestry

10

What Value Does HFE Add?
 Increased  Decreased
• User experience & • Development costs
engagement • Need for redesign & recall
• Ease of learning & use • Support & services costs
• Satisfaction, trust & loyalty • Training time
• Repeat purchases • Maintenance costs
• Sales & market share • Accidents, injuries &
• Stock value illnesses
• Productivity & quality • Lost workdays
• Safety & health • Error rates
• Absenteeism & turnover
• Labor costs
• Equipment damages
• Insurance rates
11

What is Usability?

12

Usability Defined
 “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.”
• “Guidance for Usability” - ISO 9241-11 (1998)

13

Usability Defined, cont.
 “Usability is an approach to product development that
incorporates direct user feedback throughout the
development cycle in order to reduce costs and create
products and tools that meet user needs.”
• Usability Professionals' Association

 But … is a “usable” website sufficient???

14

Not any more …

15

User Experience (UX)
 “UX is about technology that fulfills more than just
instrumental needs in a way that acknowledges its use
as a subjective, situation, complex and dynamic
encounter. UX is a consequence of a user’s internal
states (e.g., predispositions, expectations, needs,
motivation, mood, etc.), the characteristics of the design
system (e.g., complexity, purpose, usability,
functionality, etc.), and the context (or the environment)
within which interaction occurs (e.g., organizational /
social setting, meaningfulness of the activity,
voluntariness of use, etc.).” (Hassenzahl & Tractinsky, 2006, p.
95)

16

User Experience (UX), cont.

Environment

User Technology
( Interaction)

 User engagement is one aspect of UX

17

User Engagement (UE)
 It’s a category of user experience characterized by
attributes of:
• challenge,
• positive affect,
• endurability,
• aesthetic and sensory appeal,
• attention,
• feedback,
• variety/novelty,
• interactivity, and
• perceived user control.

18

So what’s a web designer
supposed to do?

20

The Way …
 Employ a user-centered design (UCD) approach,
which incorporates human factors and ergonomics
(HFE) principles, to facilitate the creation of an optimal
user experience (UX) to maximize user engagement
(UE) when interacting with a given technology.

21

User-Centered Design Process
 Phase 1 – Planning

 Phase 2 – Analysis

 Phase 3 – Design

 Phase 4 – Implementation

 Phase 5 – Evaluation

22

Phase 1 – Planning
 Identify key stakeholders

 Assemble a multidisciplinary team

 Identify the questions that need answering

23

Phase 2 – Analysis
 Users
• Identify target audience
• Create user profiles / personas
• User requirements analysis

 Technology

 Tasks
• Task analysis
• Develop user scenarios

 Environment
• Where & how will the technology be implemented?
24

Phase 2 – Analysis, cont.
 Review / Incorporate
• Standards
• Technical literature
• Customer service complaints
• Evaluations of earlier generation technology
• Competitor evaluations
• Subject matter experts

25

Phase 3 – Design
 Review design specification for UX issues

 Create prototypes

 Perform heuristic evaluation

 Conduct preliminary in-house usability testing

 Develop documentation

26

Phase 4 – Implementation
 Work w/ implementation team to identify issues to
resolve

 Perform ergonomic evaluations to verify optimal
implementation of technology

27

Phase 5 – Evaluation
 Web analytics

 Expert evaluations

 Survey users for feedback

 Perform observational studies to see technology in use

 Conduct usability testing w/ actual users

28

Lets “drill down” on
evaluations methods

29

At a high level you have …
 Two types of data
• Quantitative
 Defines
 “Measurable”
• Qualitative
 Describes
 “Observable”

 Two ways to collect it
• Passive
• Active

30

Web Analytics
 UX Engagement Metrics
• Hits
• Page views
• Visits
• Unique views
• Returning visitors
• Registered users
• Customers
• Frequencies
• Time on site
• Daily active users

 http://52weeksofux.com/post/548149897/ux-
engagement-metrics
31

Expert Evaluations
 A HFE / usability expert reviews the technology to
identify issues

 Other names: heuristic evaluation; usability inspection

 Strengths
• Cost effective
• Identifies the “low-hanging fruit” to fix

 Weaknesses
• Relies on the knowledge and expertise of the evaluator
• Often doesn’t identify missing functionality

32

Expert Evaluations – Examples
 Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics
• Visibility of system status
• Match between system and the real world
• User control and freedom
• Consistency and standards
• 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

 http://www.useit.com/

33

Expert Evaluations – Examples, cont.
 Shneiderman’s 8 Golden Rules of Interface Design
• Strive for consistency
• Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
• Offer informative feedback
• Design dialog to yield closure
• Offer simple error handling
• Permit easy reversal of actions
• Support internal locus of control
• Reduce short-term memory load

 http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/

34

Usability Testing
 A method to evaluate a product by having individuals
use it.

 Questions to ask:
• What do you want to know?
• What do you want the users to do?
• How many users will be needed? Recruitment? Payment?
• Where will the testing be performed? Lab, field, or remote?

35

Usability Testing, cont.
 Performance metrics
• Task success
• Time-on-task
• Errors
• Efficiency
• Learnability

 Issues-based metrics
• Focuses on identifying problems

36

 Self-reported metrics
• Ease of use
• Satisfaction
• Likelihood of use; purchase

 Example: Subjective Usability Scale (SUS)

37

Subjective
Usability
Scale
(SUS)

http://hell.meiert.org/core/pdf/sus.pdf
38

 Behavioral and Physiological Metrics
• Facial expressions
• Eye tracking
• Pupillary response
• Skin conductance
• Heart rate

39

 Remote / Online

40

Ten Steps to Usability Test (Hansen)
 Do your homework
 Write the test plan
 Design the test
 Arrange a test location and equipment
 Conduct a dry run
 Recruit users
 Set up the test room
 Conduct the test
 Compile and analyze the results
 Take action

Hansen, M. (1991). Ten steps to usability testing. Proceedings of the 9th
Annual International Conference on Systems Documentation, p. 135-139.

41

Top Ten Myths About Usability (Tullis)
 Usability is just common sense.
 Usability is just about making things look nice.
 Usability can’t be measured.
 Usability means usability for the “average” person.
 Usability doesn’t have any real impact on our world.
 Usability costs too much.
 This must be usable because we built it in Flash, Ajax, etc.
 Usability is a fad. This too shall pass.
 Usability doesn’t impact the bottom line.
 Usability is only applies to computers and web sites.

http://www.measuringux.com/UsabilityMyths/UsabilityMyths.pdf

42

And now for some real
life examples…

43

Examples
 Heuristic Evaluation
• Purpose
 Assessed OoBE
 Evaluated critical tasks
 Appraised strengths &
weaknesses

• 3 usability heuristics
 Nielsen’s 10 principles
 Cognitive workload
 Mobile phone-specific

44

Examples, cont.
 Website Usability Study
• Purpose
 User performance (time on
task, completion rate, etc.)
 User satisfaction
 Differences between user
types (HHO, SMB & LEB)

• Evaluated
 Three homepage designs

• Six shareholders
w/competing needs

45

Examples, cont.
 User Experience Study
• Purpose
 Ease of use
 Strengths & weaknesses of
similar devices

• Deliverables
 Overall comparison
 User-Based Guidelines for a
Usable UMD

46

Examples, cont.
 3D Exploration Study
• Purpose
 3 types of glasses technology
(anaglyph, polarized, & active)
 Computer & TV

• Evaluated
 Preference of glasses
 Perceived comfort, quality,
willingness to purchase, etc.

47

Additional Resources
 Measuring the User Experience
• http://www.measuringux.com/

 Journal of Usability Studies
• http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/index.html

 Handbook of Usability Principles
• http://www.luckydogarts.com/dm158/docs/posit.pdf

 Want Magazine
• http://wantmag.com/

49

Contact Information
 Eric F. Shaver, Ph.D.

Benchmark Research & Safety, Inc.
3355 N. Five Mile Road, #277
Boise, ID 83713

208-407-2908

eshaver@benchmarkrs.com
www.thehumanfactorblog.com
@ericshaver

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