CSC417: Human Computer Interaction

Lecture 06: Usability Engineering

Dr. Charbel T. Fares

charbelfares@usek.edu.lb
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What is Usability?
 Usability engineering ensures that the
designed system is fit for the purpose it was
designed for.
 Usability is also a quality attribute that
assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
 Usability looks at real users in action and
measures the system in terms of a pre-
defined set of criteria.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Process of Usability Engineering

 Defining the usability through metrics.
 Setting planned levels for usability
attributes.
 Incorporating user-derived feedback into
the design process.
 Repeating all the above until usability levels
are met or amended by agreement with the
user.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Quality Components of Usability

 Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic
tasks the first time they encounter the design?
 Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how
quickly can they perform tasks?
 Memorability: When users return to the design after a
period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish
proficiency?
 Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are
these errors, and how easily can they recover from the
errors?
 Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Usability Metrics (1)

- Learnability
- Throughput

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Usability Metrics: Learnability (2)

 The time required to learn the system.
 The time required to achieve a stated performance
criterion.
 The difficulties observed in acquiring the necessary skill.
 User comments, suggestions and preferences.
 The frequency of error messages.
 The frequency of particular error messages.
 The frequency of use of on-line help.
 The number of time the user needed help on a specific
problem.

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Usability Metrics: Throughput (2)

 The time required to perform selected tasks.
 The success to failure rate in completing task.
 The frequency of use of various commands or of
particular language features/functions.
 The time spent looking for information in
documentation.
 The time spent using on-line help.
 The measurements of user problems as for learning.
 User comments, suggestions and preferences.
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Checklist for Developing a
Usability Specification
 The time taken to complete the task.
 Percentage of the task completed.
 Percentage of the task completed per unit of time.
 Ratio of success to failure.
 The time spent dealing with errors.
 The frequency of use of online help and documentation.
 The amount of time spent using help and documentation.
 The percentage of favorable/unfavorable user comments.
 The number of repetitions or failed commands.
 The number of good features recalled by user.
 The number of command not used.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Why Usability is Important

 Internet: if a website is difficult to access, the first
thing that a user will do is to close the website
because many other website exists that can offer the
same information.
 Intranet: Time users waste being lost on your
intranet or pondering difficult instructions is money
you waste by paying them to be at work without
getting work done. This is a matter of employee
productivity.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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How to Improve Usability (1)

User Testing

 Choose a small group of representative users.

 Ask the users to perform representative tasks
with the design.
 Observe what the users do, where they
succeed , and where they have difficulties
with the interface.
Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares
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How to Improve Usability (2)

 It's important to test users individually and let them solve
any problems on their own. If you help them or direct their
attention to any particular part of the screen, you have
contaminated the test results.
 To identify a design's most important usability problems,
testing five users is typically enough. Rather than run a
big, expensive study, it's a better use of resources to run
many small tests and revise the design between each one
so you can fix the usability flaws as you identify them.
Iterative design is the best way to increase the quality of
user experience. The more versions and interface ideas you
test with users, the better.
Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares
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When to Work on Usability (1)

1. Before starting the new design, test the old
design to identify the good parts that you should
keep or emphasize, and the bad parts that give
users trouble.
2. Unless you're working on an intranet, test your
competitors' designs to get cheap data on a
range of alternative interfaces that have similar
features to your own.
3. Conduct a field study to see how users behave
in their natural habitat.
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When to Work on Usability (2)

4. Make paper prototypes of one or more new design ideas
and test them. The less time you invest in these design
ideas the better, because you'll need to change them all
based on the test results.
5. Refine the design ideas that test best through multiple
iterations, gradually moving from low-fidelity
prototyping to high-fidelity representations that run on
the computer. Test each iteration.
6. Once you decide on and implement the final design, test
it again.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Misconceptions about Usability (1)

 Usability is expensive: yes it is expensive
for big projects. But most of everyday
usability projects are cheap. On average
10% of the project budget is spent on
usability. That's a cheap way to ensure that
you spend the remaining 90% correctly,
rather than blow your budget on an
unworkable design.
Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares
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Misconceptions about Usability (2)

 Usability will delay the launching date:
Usability needs not to be grandiose. One of
the main benefits of usability is that you
don't have to spend time on features that
users don't need. Early studies will show
you where to focus your resources so that
you can ship on time.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares

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Misconceptions about Usability (3)

 Usability kills creativity: Design is basically
problem solving under constraints: you must
design a system that can actually be built, that's
within budget, and that works in the real world.
Usability adds one more constraint: the system
must be relatively easy for people to use. This
constraint exists whether or not you include
formal usability methods in your design process.
We have facts in life. All usability does is to
make them explicit so that you can account for
them in your design.

Lecture 06- CSC417 © Dr. Charbel Fares