Usability

1. Usability Jennifer Eley Mayumi Abe

2. The Definition of Usability • The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can achieve tasks in a particular environment of a product. • A quality attribute that assesses how easy a user interface is to use. • methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.

3. Five Key Components • Easy to learn. • Efficient to learn. • Easy to remember. • Error prevention. • Satisfying.

4. What Can We Do with Usability? • Uncover the real needs and tasks of the user. • Eliminate over-design. • Provide data. • Reduce costs. • Provide a competitive advantage. • Have a demonstrable effect deployment costs and user productivity. • Ensure a better reputation for the product.

5. Usability Testing • A means for measuring how well people can use some human-made object, and how well test subjects respond in four areas: • Time: How long it takes to complete tasks. • Accuracy: How many mistakes people made. • Recall: How much people remember. • Emotional response: How people feel. • Re-test every 6 months.

6. Web Page Design • Simplicity • Follow established web conventions • Don’t disable user preferences • Use semantic tags whenever possible

7. Dos Black text & White Background Text is a printable color Familiar location of navigation bars Encourage scrolling by splitting an image at the fold Limit annoyances Make buttons and links clear Don’ts Use boldface or all caps for long text Leave too much white space Alternate too frequently between centered and left aligned text Fix pages larger than 800 x 600 pixels Dos and Don’ts of Achieving Usability

8. References • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing • http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/usability • http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/portal/usability/index.htm • www.usabilityfirst.com