Glossary » Usability Methods
usability engineering
a methodical “engineering” approach to user interface design and evaluation involving practical, systematic approaches to developing requirements, analyzing a usability problem, developing proposed solutions, and testing those solutions.
Read more »usability evaluation
or usability assessment; any of a variety of techniques for measuring or comparing the ease-of-use of a computer system, including: usability inspection, user interface critiques, user testing of a wide variety of kinds, safety and stress testing, functional testing, and…
Read more »usability inquiry
the set of usability methods that gather usability data by asking users for their views and opinions, such as interviews, surveys, and focus groups.
Read more »usability inspection
a class of techniques for evaluating a user interface by examining and critiquing it, as opposed to, for instance, testing the interface on users. The critique would normally be based on experience, psychological principles, or a set of previously-defined guidelines.…
Read more »usability lab
a lab designed for user testing, typically a quiet room with computer equipment and a space for an observer to sit, along with a special observation area (possibly behind a one-way mirror) and equipment for videotaping. Computers in a usability…
Read more »usability problem tracking
similar to bug tracking, this is keeping a problem list of known usability problems or issues in a given design that need to be addressed. This systematic approach to documenting design problems helps to avoid problems being overlooked and helps…
Read more »usability testing
same as user testing, but emphasizes that it is the property of being usable, not the user, that is being tested.
Usability testing encompasses a range of methods that examine how users in the target audience actually interact with a…
Read more »usage study
as opposed to usability testing, which typically brings people into a lab to examine specific usability questions against often predetermined benchmarks, a usage study examines how a system is actually being used in its actual work setting, which may entail…
Read more »usage-centered design
an approach to user interface visual and interaction design based on a focus on user intentions and usage patterns. It analyzes users in terms of the roles they play in relation to systems and employs abstract (essential) use cases for…
Read more »use cases
a task analysis technique often used in software engineering. For each module of a system, common tasks are written up with the prerequisites for each task, the steps to take for the user and the system, and the changes that…
Read more »use what you build
a way of evaluating a system by having the designers and programmers actually apply the system in their own work. This is a particularly good approach for finding functional holes and major inefficiencies, and results in great responsiveness to user…
Read more »user acceptance testing
UAT; a method for determining how well users have adopted a new technology, especially in organizational settings. Users are typically interviewed to determine if and how they are using the technology and to understand what barriers to adoption may exist.…
Read more »user interface
UI; the parts of a computer system that a person uses to communicate with the computer. This includes the way the computer conveys messages to the person (output devices), the way the person talks to the computer (input devices), and…
Read more »user interface critique
or u.i. critique; an expert evaluation of a user interface in the tradition of literary criticism. At least in a casual sense, this is the evaluation technique most often used in software reviews: an expert reviews the software from any…
Read more »user interface design
the overall process of designing how a user will be able to interact with a software application.
User interface design is involved in many stages of product development, including: requirements analysis, information architecture, interaction design, screen design, user testing, documentation,…
Read more »user interface guidelines
lists of principles for user interface design, ranging from broad statements such as “be consistent” to extremely specific details such as “use an ellipsis (…) at the end of a menu item to indicate that the command brings up a…
Read more »user needs analysis
uncovering the goals a user has and the capabilities needed from a technology to assist the user in meeting those goals. This involves understanding the target audience, their typical tasks, and their specific constraints, usually through a combination of observational…
Read more »user simulation
using a program to behave like a user in order to automatically test an interface, either for usability or quality assurance purposes. The program is usually rigged to send input events just like a user, e.g. mouse clicks and keypresses.…
Read more »user studies
any of the wide variety of methods for understanding the usability of a system based on examining actual users or other people who are representative of the target user population. Such methods include user testing, focus groups, surveys, interviews, observational…
Read more »user testing
a family of methods for evaluating a user interface by collecting data from people actually using the system.
A simple user test would be to bring in a small number of potential users of the software (4-5 minimum, 8-10 to…
Read more »verification
the process of determining that the results of a design or development phase are consistent with the design specs that were provided for that phase.
Read more »video coding
or video transcription; the systematic recording of the contents of recorded video. While coding may note any number of characteristics in the video, typical coding involves a text transcript of words spoken and who is speaking, indicating such things as…
Read more »video prototyping
a technique for visualizing the interactive behavior of a system using video animation. Each frame of the video is created by videotaping a brief instance in the use of a system. Each frame is typically constructed on paper with icons,…
Read more »videotaping
a data capture technique sometimes used in many types of user studies, such as usability testing, focus groups, and interviews. Get permission from users before videotaping them. Video can be used for several purposes:
to supplement your notes and minimize…
Read more »virtual value chain analysis
a “virtual value chain” is a business model for the information services industry, developed by John Sviokla. The value chain starts with the Content provider, then goes to the Information Infrastructure for distribution and transactional support, and then to the…
Read more »