Common Usability Engineering Methods in Singapore

Usability Engineering includes a complete set of user-centred, practical engineering approaches aimed at improving and assessing the quality of product usability for different phases of the product lifecycle. Its basic purpose is to emphasize that in the process of product development, it is necessary to focus on the user as the starting point, with the active participation of users in order to gain timely feedback from users and to improve the design accordingly. So far, dozens or even more usability engineering methods have been developed. Some of them have been continuously improved and mature in many years of practical application. They have been widely accepted and adopted by the industry. According to the work area of usability engineering in the product lifecycle, usability engineering methods can be broadly divided into six categories: planning, standard application, the early prototype, expert evaluation, user evaluation and user subjective evaluation.

Planning

Planning refers to planning the usability of work and its management throughout the product life cycle prior to product development to establish the necessary foundation for usability design, usability testing and evaluation later on.

1. Usability plan

usability plans define the role of usability engineering in the product life cycle and the activities to be undertaken. For each activity, it is necessary to define the tasks it contains. For each task, it is necessary to identify the responsible person, the technology to be used and the schedule. During the early stage of product development, the usability plan should be worked out and the corresponding documents should be formed. The later usability activities should be carried out around the usability plan. usability planning is a dynamic, flexible document that needs to be adjusted regularly as the product development process progresses.

2. Cost-benefit analysis of usability

Analyze and evaluate the costs and possible benefits of using usability engineering methods in product development. First, it estimates the various benefits that may be gained from improving the quality of product usability, including indirect and direct benefits such as increasing user productivity, reducing user errors, and reducing training costs, and then estimating the cost of doing usability work, which includes labor and equipment usage costs. The comparative analysis of the two values, from the perspective of input-output choice more appropriate work usability.

3. Use environmental analysis

This method is mainly through well-organized meetings, interviews and other forms of access to information on product usage environment, including users, tasks, computing, physical, social environment and so on. Typically, usability professionals, project managers, product developers, and user representatives need to attend analytical meetings together to analyze and define the usage environment for software products and create “usage environment reports” and “assessment environmental reports” to give users Characteristics, tasks and work environment, these will be the basis for future product design and usability testing evaluation.

Using standard

The purpose of applying standards is to make ergonomic guidelines and standards effective for product development.

1. ISO 9241 Application Analysis

Product designers and usability professionals work together to analyze the ergonomics involved in the product and how to apply the ISO 9241 standard to address these issues. ISO 9241 contains a well-accepted, preferred software ergonomics guide that facilitates the application of software ergonomics in product development.

2. ISO 9241 compliance assessment

An ergonomics panelist evaluates compliance with ISO 9241 for product and development processes and issues a certificate of conformity or a non-conformity report based on the results of the review. Product developers should provide documentation and evidence that the development process and product attributes comply with ISO 9241 standards. The reviewers passed the review of these documents and evidence, on-site visits, interviews and confirmatory assessments, and finally gave the conclusion of compliance.

Early prototype

Using a variety of technical means to simulate a variety of product design solutions to collect user feedback, you can help designers in the entire process of product development, testing, evaluation, selection and improvement of product design.

1. Paper prototype

Usability professionals and product designers use tools such as paper, card, and transparencies to create various elements of a computer screen design, especially a human-machine user interface, and then mimic the computer’s execution by letting the user “interact with the computer” to accomplish certain tasks , And encourage them to express their feelings and opinions. This method is simple, conducive to repeated testing and improve the design, suitable for early product development.

2. Video prototype

Through the video recording method, the man-machine interface operation and execution process simulated by the paper prototyping material are recorded, and then the process of human-computer interaction is demonstrated to the user. Although the user can not interact directly with the prototype, this approach allows the user to have a comprehensive understanding of the design and is particularly suitable for simulating the dynamics of the product’s functionality.

3. Computer prototype

This approach uses a variety of rapid prototyping tools to create computer software systems that simulate product designs that allow users to interact directly, have high levels of realism, quickly adapt and refine product designs based on feedback, and reduce iterations of system development frequency.

4. Disguise the prototype

This is a variation on a prototype computer. Developers behind the scenes manipulate the computer to simulate a system’s behavior, allowing users to interact with the “system” without their knowledge. The developer receives the user’s input and then mimics the computer to give the output. Through this process, the user’s needs and expectations are studied, and the usability of design solutions is analyzed. This method is particularly suitable for complex product design.

Expert assessment

Expert assessment is the usability or ergonomics of product design assessment of usability and review, to determine whether there is usability problem. Does it conform to the appropriate style guidelines, standards or usual ergonomics? Such methods are mainly “empirical assessment” and “usability assessment.”

Empirical Evaluation Two to three experts in ergonomics or human-computer interaction examine and evaluate product designs based on some commonly used criteria and principles, as well as their own experiences to identify the usability issues that users may encounter and to evaluate Severity order. This method is suitable for all stages of the development cycle.

Usability review is a method used to discover the usability issues with the paper prototype of screen designs. Users, developers, and usability experts review the design from their own perspectives, then focus on the content of the design one by one and improve improper design. This method is fast and easy to apply to the early stages of product development.

User assessment

The biggest difference between user evaluation and expert evaluation is that it is based on the user’s real experience and feelings. There are two main forms of assessment: one is to allow users to interact with the system without assistance and interference, and the other is to work with designers to evaluate the system.

1. Feedback gathering based on user observations

The user uses a prototype or finished product to perform a given task on his own, and the usability staff records the test process and then analyzes the usability issues to improve the product design. Its focus is on usability issues, so you do not have to involve too many users, 3-5, and you do not have to make too many records. This method is relatively simple, fast, commonly used in early prototyping.

2. Performance measurement based on user observations

This method is the same as the feedback-based method of user-based observation, but its purpose is to obtain the user’s performance measurement data of the system. Therefore, it is required to simulate the real environment and products as much as possible, and the number of users who need to participate is relatively large. The event and time of the test process should be recorded in detail and the video recording and recording methods should be used when necessary. Afterwards, the test data careful analysis to calculate performance measurement data.

3. Collaborative assessment

Let users use a prototype to accomplish a given task, in which users are encouraged to explain their actions by communicating with usability or talking to themselves. Usability users record unexpected user behavior and user comments on the system, while asking questions about the user’s intentions and expectations. From this process, you can find the problems encountered by users and the reasons for these problems. This method is suitable for early design, can also be used for the improvement of existing products.

4. Supportive assessment

This approach allows users to use a prototype or finished product to accomplish a given task, with the usability staff documenting the issues that warrant further exploration and then discussing with developers and users to identify causes and propose improvements. This method can be used for both prototyping and for user experience needs as the original product improves.

User subjective assessment

Subjective assessment of users through questionnaires or direct communication to obtain the user’s subjective feelings about the product design information to determine the availability of existing problems. Common methods include the SUMI questionnaire, cognitive burdens, focus groups, and personal interviews.

The SUMI questionnaire applies only to software products and is a method of collecting and analyzing subjective feelings from users who actually experience the use of the product. It allows users to fill out a standard questionnaire containing 50 psychological test questions, and then use a dedicated data analysis software to analyze the questionnaire results, come to quantitative indicators of customer satisfaction. This method is suitable for finished or high-fidelity prototypes and is often used in conjunction with other usability engineering methods. It can be used as part of a laboratory usability assessment, or it can be used to conduct a mail survey.

Cognitive burden surveys can understand the cognitive burdens that users endure when using the product to determine whether the product design is acceptable to the user on the cognitive burden. It can be obtained through subjective burden assessment based on the three indicators of time, mental burden and psychological stress. A standard questionnaire can also be used to evaluate the user’s subjective feelings. Results can also be obtained by collecting objective data such as heart rate and breathing.

The Focus Group is an informal seminar organized by representatives of all stakeholders involved in product development. The usability staff organizes participants to comment on the evaluated product design, derives the user’s initial need for the product, or collects user feedback on the prototype .

Personal interviews with usability staff and users about how they use the product talk to find out about usability issues. Interviews can be structured, that is, according to the list of questions prepared in advance to do; also be unstructured, that is, around a theme freely play; also be semi-structured, that is a combination of both. In the specific application of what form in the end, mainly depends on the topic of interview and the extent of the user’s assessment of the extent of the assessment.

Wrap up

The usability engineering methods described above are both proven effective and effective after years of industrial practice. In the practical application of each method, some details of the method execution can be flexibly grasped according to the specific conditions. How to choose the usability engineering method used in a particular product development project is directly related to the effectiveness of usability engineering. It is important here to take into account the stage of development at the time, the information provided by the various methods and the resources they need in terms of skills, personnel, time and equipment. Based on this, we choose a group of methods that are suitable for specific situations, complement each other and connect with each other, so as to make the user-centered design idea as fully as possible.

see more:http://user-experience-in-sg.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/01/25/125042