A Conceptual Tool for Usability Problem Identification in Website Development

Abstract

Techniques and tools that enable website developers without formal training in human-computer interaction to conduct their own usability evaluations would radically advance the integration of usability engineering in website development. This paper presents experiences from usability evaluations conducted by developers in an empirical study of means to support non-experts in identifying usability problems. A group of software developers who were novices in usability engineering analyzed a usability test session with the task of identifying usability problems experienced by the user. When doing this, they employed a simple one-page conceptual tool that supports identification of usability problems. The non-experts were able to conduct a well-organized usability evaluation and identify a reasonable amount of usability problems with a performance that was comparable to usability experts.

An Empirical Study of the Effects of Three Think-Aloud Protocols on Identification of Usability Problems

“…Due to the variety in protocols we found it important to ensure consistency of problem identification in the individual analysis. To support this , we adapted the conceptual tool for usability problem identification and categorization in [22]. We distinguished used the following ways of detecting a usability problem: A) Slowed down relative to normal work speed B) Inadequate understanding, e.g.…”