#19293
The Short-Term Benefits of a Usability Strategy
Usability, and professional interface design, is often presented as a long-term strategy for those involved in software development. There is a common perception that as effective as user-centred interface design can be in terms of creating satisfied end-users, brand loyalty, and repeat business, it lacks something of the ‘wow’ factor and will not affect the bottom line in the short term. In our experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Particularly in today’s software market, many of our customers report significant and immediate improvements in terms of product sales. It doesn’t take long to figure out why. The typical software sales process could almost have been designed to favour those products that present a clear, intuitive, attractive and easy-to-use interface to the user.
Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods
#21096
Speed: The Missing Link in Usability Testing
Businesses everywhere are launching internal and customer-focused applications on the World Wide Web, using them as channels to reach scores of employees and customers in a matter of seconds. Prior to launching such applications, many organizations hold a series of usability tests. Everything is tested: from the initial front-end interface, navigational structure, the information architecture, and overall ease of use. Often, though, companies forget to test the one thing that will assure them that their site or application is easy to use: speed.
Dorfman, Susan and Donald Doane. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods
#21029
Stalking the User: Practical Field Research 
Describes how technical communicators can use field research--observing people in their workplaces, homes, and schools--to gain a better understanding of user behavior.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. Intercom (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#21153
#18620
Surveys are ad hoc interviews with users, where a set list of questions is asked and the users' responses recorded. Surveys differ from questionaires in that they are interactive interviews, although not structured like contextual inquiries nor formally scheduled and organized like focus groups.
#30050
System Usability Scale and Non-Native English Speakers 
The System Usability Scale (SUS) was administered verbally to native English and non-native English speakers for several internally deployed applications. It was found that a significant proportion of non-native English speakers failed to understand the word 'cumbersome' in Item 8 of the SUS (that is, 'I found the system to be very cumbersome to use.') This finding has implications for reliability and validity when the questionnaire is distributed electronically in multinational usability efforts.
Finstad, Kraig. Journal of Usability Studies (2006). Articles>Usability>Assessment>Methods
#25901
Take Breaks! A Simple Way to Improve Your Heuristic Evaluation Results
As primary tools in the usability field, heuristic or expert evaluations can be rich areas for methods studies and improvement. Early results of one methods study suggest that performing evaluations in limited segments, with breaks between each segment, may increase the effectiveness of the evaluator in identifying usability problems.
Faulkner, Laura. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Heuristic Evaluation
#10384
Taking Usability Testing to the Field 
Know your audiences, comes the repeated message for technical communicators and in response, more and more technical communicators have turned to usability testing to learn more about their readers and to improve their communications. Technical communicators produce manuals, instructions, and warnings for hand tools, medical equipment, lawn mowers, tractors, pesticide sprayers, and thousands of different products. Most manuals, instructions, and products can benefit from usability testing. This case study provides guidance for technical communicators who are novices to usability testing. The lessons we learned can be of value to technical communicators beginning their first usability testing on a wide range of technical communications and products.
Zimmerman, Donald E., Michel Lynn Muraski and Michael D. Slater. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#30445
The task-artifact cycle is in other words an iterative process of continuous, mutually dependent development between task and artifact, a process that will never reach an optimum state.
Soegaard, Mads. Interaction-Design.org. Articles>Usability>Methods
#15007
Techniques for Managing a Usability Test
For readers who have performed a usability test or taken a course on usability methods, provides project management techniques to ensure that a usability test meets its information-gathering goals.
Kantner, Laurie. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1994). Articles>Usability>Methods
#28935
Testing Incentives: The Best Way to Pay
The topic of test subject compensation generates a lot of conversation...how do you motivate test participants?
Anderson, Clifford. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#26635
Time Budgets for Usability Sessions
Up to 40% of precious testing time is wasted while users engage in nonessential activities. Far better to focus on watching users perform tasks with the target interface design.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods
#24570
Toward Integrating Our Research Scope: A Sociocultural Field Methodology
Technical communicators have recently become interested in user-centered design (UCD) for designing and evaluating technical genres. Yet, a critical examination of the field methods of UCD suggests that they suffer from unintegrated scope: an undesirably limiting focus on a particular level of scope (either the macroscopic level of human activity or the mesoscopic level of goal-directed action) in their theoretical underpinnings and data collection and analysis. This focus is often paired with the assumption that this particular level of scope causally affects what happens at the other levels. Both the focus and the assumption are at odds with sociocultural theories of human activity. This article lays out the problem of unintegrated scope and examines it through critical analyses of two field methods used in UCD research. It concludes by proposing an integrated-scope research methodology for UCD research, with roots in both sociocultural theory and the central issues of technical communication.
Spinuzzi, Clay. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>User Centered Design
#28895
Trials and Tribulations of Using an Eye-Tracking System
This paper's focus is on the challenges associated with collecting eye-tracking data. Despite operator training conducted by the manufacturer, one year of experience with eye-tracking and extensive calibration, the data collection success rate in the current investigation was very low; only six out of sixteen participants (37.5%) were successfully eye-tracked. We discuss possible explanations for this low success rate, and why we do not currently believe that eye-tracking is ready to be employed in usability laboratories.
Schnipke, Susan K. and Marc W. Todd. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#23860
We are all somewhat familiar with the range of methods that can be used to usability test our products or even early designs. But there may be more methods than you’ve thought about. How many of the following methods are you familiar with?
Preston, Alice. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods
#28617
Usability Leistungsspektrum Die ausgefeiltesten digitalen Strategien scheitern oft am Einfachsten: der Usability. Doch in einer Zeit, in der Ihr Wettbewerber nur einen Mausklick weit entfernt ist, stellt Usability eine der größten Herausforderungen im Bereich der digitalen Kommunikation dar.
Schröter, Holger. Digital District GmbH (2005). (German) Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#28270
Usability and Findability: Getting the Synergy Right
Read about techniques for successful search engine optimization (SEO) as well as examples of good and bad keywording methods.
Spencer, Stephan. Intercom (2006). Articles>Usability>Methods
#19939
There are a variety of approaches to usability evaluation that you may choose to take. The methodologies can be divided into two broad categories: those that gather data from actual users and those that can be applied without actual users present. Of course the approach you choose to take must factor in variables such as the cost of evaluation, the appropriateness of the technique to your project, time constraints of the project, and the cost associated with the implementation and training of new users. Usability evaluations can be conducted at many stages during and after the design and development process. In choosing a usability evaluation method, cost is invariably a consideration. But it is important to keep in mind that the value of a usability evaluation needs to be calculated not only in time and materials involved, but also in terms of the impact on the end-users, especially considering the cost of losing return visitors to your website due to unusable design.
#28258
How can a small company's website benefit from usability activities despite a minuscule budget? By integrating four simple and effective usability practices into the design process.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods
#14997
Usability in Practice: Field Studies
Field methods are a collection of tools and techniques for conducting studies of users, their tasks, and their work environments in the actual context of those environments. The promise of such methods is that they help teams design products that are both useful and usable by providing data about what people really do. This paper reviews ways to adapt these methods to practical constraints, with brief case study summaries.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1997). Articles>Usability>Methods
#11797
Usability Interface: Convincing the Skeptics
People familiar with product development understand the dedication needed for any usability effort to be successful. However, people unfamiliar with usability think that it’s cosmetic and can be combined with other phases of development when time is available. How do you convince the skeptics?
Dick, David J. STC Usability SIG (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods
#21125
First, when you are conducting a usability test, it is important to understand exactly what data you should be collecting. You should not run a test without first deciding on what data is required to address your business challenges. Plan ahead! Second, in a usability test, you don't just watch users. You must collect data that reflects how customers actually use your products and services. This is easier said than done.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>Testing
#18720
Usability Myths Need Reality Checks
Not so very long ago, it was agreed that five to eight users was enough for a good usability test. Somehow, this idea achieved mythic status. We believed it. We preached it to everyone who would listen. It survived in areas where it had been disproved, and was introduced into new situations where it didn't even apply. What gives some ideas such staying power? What did the five-user myth accomplish? It reconciled test plans with testing budgets! If five to eight users are enough, then it's safe to act on the results of a test series with only five to eight users.
Schroeder, Will. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods>Testing
#22462
Today's corporate firms focus increasingly on their online presence. However, not many understand the long-term implications of not testing their site's usability before it goes online, and in a recessionary era like the one just past, frequently usability is all too easily forgotten. Often no funds are allocated to conduct usability testing, even though it's a key component of any online or interactive project. In an ideal world, a Website should be evaluated for usability from the point of a new concept's inception, to the final execution and upload.
Kheterpal, Suneet. SitePoint (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods
#14996
Usability Studies of WWW Sites: Heuristic Evaluation vs. Laboratory Testing
Describes the strength and weaknesses of two usability assessment methods frequently applied to web sites to illustrate issues of special interest to designers.
Kantner, Laurie and Stephanie L. Rosenbaum. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1997). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
