#19748
Field Studies: The Best Tool to Discover User Needs
The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little design decision becomes a struggle. While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, and surveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in the toolbox is the 'field study'. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering. Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Usability
#21019
First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users
To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods
#23766
Focus Groups to Study Work Practice
Focus groups are a good way to learn how people approach tasks and to get an overview of work that spans hours or days or longer periods. Focus groups can be a great way to learn about the work that occurs 'between' or 'around' the tools we build.
Ede, Meghan R. Useit (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods>Focus Groups
#11823
Focus Groups to Study Work Practice
My definition of focus groups is very broad. I consider focus groups to occur whenever a group of people are invited to participate in a moderated discussion on a specific topic. I usually use focus groups very early in the design, to better understand potential users of a product or service. This differentiates usability focus groups from marketing focus groups, which often seek to learn reactions to a finished product. Focus groups differ from usability studies in that the participants are not asked to use a product. They differ from participatory design sessions because the participants are not asked to contribute or comment on design ideas. In a focus group, all I want participants to do is talk.
Ede, Meghan R. Usability Interface (1998). Articles>Usability>Methods>Focus Groups
#14993
Following a Fast-Moving Target: Recording User Behavior in Web Usability Testing 
Presents techniques for capturing user behavior accurately and completely in real time.
Kantner, Laurie. Tec-Ed, Inc. (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods
#18627
Formal Usability Inspection takes the software inspection methodology and adapts it to usability evaluation. Software inspections, more commonly known as code inspections, started at IBM as a way to formalize the discovery and recording of software problems ('defects' in quality jargon, 'bugs' in the vernacular). The technique also provided quantitative measurements that could be tracked using statistical process control methods. Code inspections were also adapted to check and track documentation defects, and usability defects were a logical next step. Formal usability inspections include aspects of other inspection methods too. Heuristics are used to help non-usability professionals find usability defects. Inspectors walkthrough tasks with the user's goals and purpose in mind, similar to cognitive walkthroughs, although the emphasis is less on cognitive theory and more on encountering defects.
#26761
Get Out of Your Lab, and Into Their Lives
We need to practice research methods that accept the complexity of customers' technological world, and take it into account. Monolithic solutions are giving way to smaller point solutions, people are saving their information in a variety of places (personal computer, websites and hosted applications, handheld devices, print-outs), and reliance on stored passwords and favorites is deepening. And yet, in this climate, we still invite folks into a foreign lab, to use a computer that isn't theirs, to leave behind their files, papers, and Post-It Notes, and then ask them to engage in a scripted series of uninterrupted tasks.
Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2006). Articles>Usability>Methods
#28585
Global Online Card Sort for World Usability Day 2006
World Usability Day has come and gone for 2006, and the results of the global online card sort are in. About five hundred people in 19 or 20 countries participated in the exercise. Find out what's next.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Usability>Methods>Card Sorting
#25189
If you find yourself in a facilitator role and you're beginning to doubt conventional methods, here are a few things that I suggest might help.
Battista, Ronnie. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods
#20825
Guerrilla HCI: Using Discount Usability Engineering to Penetrate the Intimidation Barrier
When asking how many usability specialists it takes to change a light bulb, the answer might well be four: Two to conduct a field study and task analysis to determine whether people really need light, one to observe the user who actually screws in the light bulb, and one to control the video camera filming the event. It is certainly true that one should study user needs before implementing supposed solutions to those problems. Even so, the perception that anybody touching usability will come down with a bad case of budget overruns is keeping many software projects from achieving the level of usability their users deserve.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Methods>Usability
#18726
Guía de Evaluación Heurística de Sitios Web
Este documento tiene por objeto servir de guía general para la evaluación de la usabilidad de sitios web. Es una versión resumida de la guía que nosotros utilizamos en nuestra actividad profesional, aunque lo suficientemente extensa y específica como para resultar de utilidad a aquellos profesionales que requieran de un documento base (que poder extender según sus propias necesidades) con el que empezar a trabajar en evaluación heurística. La Guía está estructurada en forma de checklist, para facilitar la práctica de la evaluación. Como se puede observar, todas las puntos están formulados como preguntas, dónde la respuesta afirmativa implica que que no existe un problema de usabilidad, y la negativa que si.
Hassan Montero, Yusef and Francisco Jesus Martin Fernandez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Usability>Methods>Heuristic Evaluation
#18625
Heuristic evaluation is a variation of usability inspection where usability specialists judge whether each element of a user interface follows established usability principles. This method is the part of the so-called 'discount usability engineering' method.
#22465
Heuristic Evaluation - a Step By Step Guide
Evaluation and testing is an important part of your website development process. Usability tests gather data about the usability of your site by a group of users performing specific tasks.
Danino, Nicky. SitePoint (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>Assessment
#23862
Heuristics to Evaluate Online Help
Creates a set of questions for each usability category for the person performing the heuristic evaluation with a range of very satisfied to very unsatisfied to not applicable. Each question can have a severity level that can raise significant opportunities for improvement to the foreground.
DeBoard, Donn. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Heuristic Evaluation
#20585
HHS Announces Availability of New Guidelines to Improve Web-Based Communication
Last month HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the availability of a new research-based guide to Web site design and usability.
Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods
#27405
How Many Users Should You Test With in Usability Testing?
Doesn't one need to test with at least 100 or more users for statistical significance, accuracy and validity?
Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#23878
How the Usability SIG Survey Was Developed
Although I had extensive experience creating surveys and analyzing survey results, working on a Usability SIG and an Employment and Salary Survey taught me a lot about a new survey tool.
Kleid, Naomi A. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>Surveys
#20824
How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process. Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles (the 'heuristics').
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1994). Articles>Usability>Methods>Heuristic Evaluation
#13968
How to Get Beneath the Surface in Focus Groups
It should come as no surprise that you can't always believe what you hear in focus groups, or anywhere else. Some people still believe that any moderator who can put participants at ease will get them to talk 'openly,' creating the 'right atmosphere' where the truth will come pouring out. This attitude has all too often led to findings which are clear-cut, simple, unambiguous and wrong. Are the things people are saying when pressed in focus groups really what moves them? How do you sort out the ambiguity, vagueness, omissions, contradictions, biases and irrelevancies of groups? Surely some of the most important motivators cannot easily be put into words: they are feelings, attitudes, values and beliefs that people may not be consciously aware of. How do you get beneath the surface to these hidden motivators? How do you eventually come out with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I have agonized over these issues for 26 years in thousands of groups. I still agonize over them in each and every project I undertake.
Silverman, George. MNav.com (2000). Articles>Usability>Methods>Focus Groups
#28892
The Hunt for Usability: Tracking Eye Movements 
Usability testing methods have not changed significantly since the origins of the practice. Usability studies typically address human performance at a readily observable task-level, including measures like time to complete a task, percentage of participants succeeding, type and number of errors, and subjective ratings of ease of use. Certain types of questions are difficult to answer efficiently with these techniques.
Karn, Keith S., Steve Ellis and Cornell Juliano. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (1999). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#20584
The author wants to know more about ideation frameworks, immersive spaces, and aspirational models.
Daniel, Lucas. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods
#22169
Incorporating Usability Testing into the Documentation Process
Describes how one company approaches usability testing of documentation and incorporates usability testing into its writing process through a Documentation Usability Team.
Postava-Davignon, Christi-Anne, Candice Kamachi, Cory Clarke, Gregory Kushmerek, Mary Beth Rettger, Pete Monchamp and Rich Ellis. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Documentation
#22076
Information Design Using Card Sorting
At the beginning of any information design exercise, it is normal to be confronted by a very long list of potential subjects to include. The challenge is to organise this information in a way that is useful and meaningful for the users of the system. A card sorting session can go a long way towards resolving this problem.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2001). Articles>Usability>Methods>Card Sorting
#31267
This site is designed to provide information about instructional design principles and how they relate to teaching and learning. Instructional design, also know as instructional systems design, is the is the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of instruction. Instructional designers often use instructional technology or educational technology as tools for developing instruction
InstructionalDesign.org. Articles>Usability>Instructional Design>Methods
#20855
Instructions for Branch Office Testing
These are the instructions we gave to the people at various Sun branch offices in Europe and Asia for their user testing of a new design for the company's web pages. In a few places, these instructions refer to web-specific issues, so they will have to be modified slightly for use in other projects. These instructions were sent by electronic mail to those local Sun reps who had volunteered to lead a test.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1996). Articles>Usability>Methods>Testing
