From the Publisher:
Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book provides an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. Special features: emphasizes cost-effective methods that will help developers improve their user interfaces immediately, shows you how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects, provides step-by-step information about which methods to use at various stages during the development life cycle, and offers information on the unique issues relating to informational usability. You do not need to have previous knowledge of usability to implement the methods provided, yet all of the latest research is covered.

Usability Engineering

User involvement is a widely accepted principle in development of usable systems. However, it is a vague concept covering many approaches. This study first clarifies the nature of user involvement and its expected benefits, and secondly reviews three streams of research, to evaluate the benefits and problems of varied user involvement approaches in practice. The particular focus of this study is on the early activities in the development process. An analysis of the literature suggests that user involvement has generally positive effects, especially on user satisfaction, and some evidence exists to suggest that taking users as a primary information source is an effective means of requirements capture. However, the role of users must be carefully considered and more cost-efficient practices are needed for gathering users' implicit needs and requirements in real product development contexts.

User involvement: A review of the benefits and challenges

Computer professionals have a need for robust, easy-to-use usability evaluation methods (UEMs) to help them systematically improve the usability of computer artifacts. However, cognitive walkthrough (CW), heuristic evaluation (HE), and thinking- aloud study (TA)-3 of the most widely used UEMs-suffer from a substantial evaluator effect in that multiple evaluators evaluating the same interface with the same UEM detect markedly different sets of problems. A review of 11 studies of these 3 UEMs reveals that the evaluator effect exists for both novice and experienced evaluators, for both cosmetic and severe problems, for both problem detection and severity assessment, and for evaluations of both simple and complex systems. The average agreement between any 2 evaluators who have evaluated the same system using the same UEM ranges from 5% to 65%, and no 1 of the 3 UEMs is consistently better than the others. Although evaluator effects of this magnitude may not be surprising for a UEM as informal as HE, it is cer...

The Evaluator Effect: A Chilling Fact About Usability Evaluation Methods

Architecting for usability: a survey

One of the basic usability testing techniques the HCI community draws on, and which stands out as unique, is thinking aloud. We introduce the many names, uses and modifications of the classical think aloud technique, and ask the rhetorical question: What do researchers think they get when they ask people to think aloud? We answer it by discussing the classical work of Ericsson and Simon(1984), in particular their distinction between vocalisation, verbalisation and retrospective reports and the relation to short term memory. Reintroducing the psychological perspective and the focus on higher order cognitive processes, we argue that access to subjective experience is possible in terms of introspection and describe a technique that invites the user to become a participant in the analysis of his or her own cognitive processes. We suggest that use of think aloud has as a prerequisite explicit descriptions of design, test procedure and framework for analysis. We point out, however, that if the aim is to get access to human thinking, HCI research may benefit from experimental research.

Getting access to what goes on in people's heads?: reflections on the think-aloud technique

Walkthrough techniques have been shown to be an effective supplement to empirical testing methods for evaluating the usability of software systems [3, 4]. Unfortunately, structured walkthrough procedures tend to be time-consuming and unpopular with evaluators when used on substantial tasks. To maximize the useful information obtained from walkthroughs while minimizing the overhead of the procedure itself, a fast-paced methodology was developed and used within the constraints of a real-world product development environment. By using video recording equipment and an informal, interactive evaluation session, the “cognitive jogthrough” procedure revealed significant user interface problems that could then be studied using other techniques.

The cognitive jogthrough: a fast-paced user interface evaluation procedure

Techniques for delivering content to an end user device are disclosed. A policy server performs an ingest process in which multiple versions of a content object are created. The multiple versions of the content object are associated with a single network identifier which can be distributed to publishers of the content object. When the content object is requested using the single network identifier, the policy server determines a preferred version and delivery orchestration scheme from among the multiple versions for delivery to an end user device based on several criteria. The policy server may thereafter orchestrate delivery of the preferred version of the content object to the end user device. The single network identifier may be associated with an edge location in a content delivery network (CDN) and the policy server may orchestrate delivery in cooperation with servers at the CDN edge location.

System and method for delivery of content objects

Usability testing is not always best accomplished within the confines of a specially equipped usability laboratory. Logistics and resource constraints sometimes necessitate taking the testing out on the road. Field testing provides an opportunity to sample from a distributed customer base . . a requirement of significant relevance when competing in a global market. What’s more, usability testing in the field can offer benefits in both marketing and public relations that in-house testing may miss. This paper describes some of the issues surrounding a field testing program, and gives suggestions about how such an undertaking can be accomplished under strict financial, resource and schedule limitations. A case study is presented to help illustrate the planning and evaluation process, and to provide insights into the types of problems such an endeavor is likely to encounter, as well as some valuable lessons learned along the way.

Usability testing in the field: bringing the laboratory to the user

Organizational considerations in field-oriented product development: experiences of a cross-functional team

A method for implementing an automated feedback loop to control content publication in accordance with a digital presence in a CDN may include storing and distributing content in response to user requests using a plurality of edge servers with first content being provided in a plurality of first content variants on edge servers. The method may also include managing and analyzing a digital presence as provided by the CDN using a digital presence controller, and analyzing, user interactions with the plurality of first content variants on the plurality of edge servers. The method may additionally include receiving second content, and causing a plurality of second content variants to be provided to the plurality of edge servers, the plurality of second content variants being determined based on the analysis of the user interactions with the plurality of first content variants.

David Rowley

Papers

The cognitive jogthrough: a fast-paced user interface evaluation procedure

System and method for delivery of content objects

Usability testing in the field: bringing the laboratory to the user

Organizational considerations in field-oriented product development: experiences of a cross-functional team

Feedback loop for automatic content adjustment in digital presence controls