http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Simeral,_Elizabeth_J._and_Russell_J._Branaghan A bibliography of works by Simeral, Elizabeth J. and Russell J. Branaghan in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Simeral,_Elizabeth_J._and_Russell_J._Branaghan http://tc.eserver.org/20162.html http://tc.eserver.org/20162.html Usability testing and heuristic evaluation are two methods for detecting usability problems, or bugs in software user interfaces. Usability testing identifies bugs that impair user per$ormance. It provides a realistic context for the product evaluation, whereas heuristic evaluation does not. Further, it provides an estimate of bug severity, while heuristic evaluation does not. To its detriment, usability testing is more expensive and time intensive than heuristic evaluation. It also tends to overlook bugs that may not affect user pelformance but may negatively impact the user’s perception of product quality. Recently, we have incorporated the bestfeatures of these two methods into one procedure which seems to work better than either method alone.