Usability

For the "User Friendly" webcomics, see User Friendly

Usability is the study (and measure) of the ease with which people interact with man-made tools and systems. For example, these could include:

• An interface with a personal computer
• The GUI of a piece of software
• The navigational structure of a website
• The controls of a car stereo
• A door handle

This technically diverse list of applications shows that almost any man-made system can have usability principles applied to it.

A relatively new discipline, usability has become more popular and widely recognised in recent years as companies see the benefits of researching and developing their user interfaces.

Usability addresses the full spectrum of impacts upon user success and satisfaction. Usability can be accomplished through user-centered (not necessarily user-driven) design, although various techniques are employed (eg Psychological perspectives and software driven perspectives). The usability designer provides a point-of-view that is not dependent upon computer programming goals because the usability designer's role is to act as the users' advocate. For example, after interacting with users, the usability designer may identify needed functionality or design flaws that were not anticipated.

The term user friendly is often used as a synonym for usable, though it may also refer to accessibility. The use of terms user friendly and user friendliness should be avoided, as there are no widely accepted definitions for them, and they are thus often used as vague marketing terms.

Defining usability

ISO standard

The document ISO 9241–11 (1998) Guidance on Usability issued by International Standards Organization defines usability as:

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.

Jakob Nielsen's framework of system acceptability

Usability consultant Jakob Nielsen and computer science professor Ben Shneiderman have written (separately) about a framework of system acceptability, where usability is a part of usefulness and is composed of:

• Learnability
• Efficiency of use
• Memorability
• Few and noncatastrophic errors
• Subjective satisfaction

[source: Ben Shneiderman, "Software Psychology", 1980.]

Usability considerations

Usability includes considerations such as:

• Who are the users, what do they know, and what can they learn?
• What do users want or need to do?
• What is the general background of the users?
• What is the context in which the user is working?
• What has to be left to the machine? What to the user?

Answers to these can be obtained by conducting user and task analysis at the start of the project.

Other considerations include:

• Can users easily accomplish their intended tasks? For example, can users accomplish intended tasks at their intended speed?
• How much training do users need?
• What documentation or other supporting materials are available to help the user? Can users find the solutions they seek in these materials?
• What and how many errors do users make when interacting with the product?
• Can the user recover from errors? What do users have to do to recover from errors? Does the product help users recover from errors, for example, does software present informative, non-threatening error messages?
• Are there provisions for meeting the special needs of users with disabilities? (accessibility)

Examples of ways to find answers to these and other questions are: user-focused requirements analysis, building user profiles, and usability testing.

Usability is now recognized as an important software quality attribute, earning its place among more traditional attributes such as performance and robustness. Indeed various academic programs focus on usability. [1] Also several usability consultancy companies have emerged, and traditional consultancy and design firms are offering similar services.

Usability professionals have their own Usability Professionals Organization [2].

Usability is the software specialization of the larger topic of human factors and ergonomics, although the term is also applied to document design.

See also

• Usability testing
• Internationalization

Sources

• Jakob Nielsen: Usability Engineering, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, ISBN 0–12–518406–9

External links

• Jakob Nielsen on Usability: Usability Alertbox, reports, and links by the web usability expert.
• Vincent Flanders on Usability: Another web usability expert ironically criticises mistakes commited on more or less famous sites
• Bugresort – Weblog about User Interface Design (English)
• Usability Glossary A concise glossary of usability terms, including affordance, topsight, USD, and user experience.
• Design Basics An introduction to some of the basics of usability design, mostly by example.
• CMU HCII website
• Web Design Reference – A huge mega-reference (over 3,000 links) of information and articles dedicated web design and development. The site advocates accessibility, web standards, usability, evaluation and testing and many related topics. It features a listserv and RSS feed for site updates.
• Interaction-Design.org – an open-content, peer-reviewed Encyclopedia covering terms from the disciplines of HCI, Usability, Human factors, Information architecture, and related fields.
• Usability Views A collection of thousands of links to usability related articles.
• The Indo European Systems Usability Partnership website
• CHIPlace Forum on Computer Human InteRaction website
• Human Computer Interaction Bibliography website
• The Center for Knowledge Societies An ethnographic and usability research organization that focuses on innovating for non traditional and underserved user communities in South Asia and other emerging economies.
• EServer TC Library: Usability A web portal with links to more than 1,000 online usability resources
• The Interaction Designer's Coffee Break
• The Usability Professionals' Association
• Society for Technical Communication's Usability Special Interest Group