A short introduction to **Usability Analysis**

Frank E. Ritter, Mike McNeese, Dirk van Rooy,

based on a talk prepared by Peter R. Lonsdale, lpxprl@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk, for C8CXCE: People and Computers in the Workplace, U. of Nottingham, November 1998

[insert Joke here - bridge design]

26 June 2001
for IST 110, Web developers Conference, and everyone

Usability will be based on optimising:

Two ways to successfully design:

    1  The right, best way:

    Know your user's tasks

    Know your user

    Know your technology

    Then
      Do the right thing
       

    2  The (alas) too often usual way:

Introspect about users and their needs

    Design (perhaps stop here even)
     

    Test with:
     

      experts  and/or
       

      users and/or

      your friends

Like writing, both are used concurrent and together
 


 
 

Basic Guidelines and the design space we're using
 
 
 
 

So, what to do? The gold standard, blue-ribbon approach, top-shelf, is Users and Use

 

Know your users and their environment

cognitive and perceptual psychology

reflection

logs

surveys

interviews

org charts

remits

observation

 

Know their tasks

reflection

user logs

surveys

interviews

observation of users with current tasks

prototyping and discussion

 

Design to support users doing tasks

reflection

storyboards, mockups

rapid prototyping

cognitive models to test interfaces

cognitive walkthroughs

usability lab studies

 

Example start for IST Web site analysis

Full analysis as tech report


Published report as article

 

So get to work!