Usability Evaluation
“In usability evaluations, the definition of tasks and task analysis is used to obtain a quantitative measure of performance in terms of the time it takes to accomplish a task, or success/failure rates (Preece et al. 1994).”
Mordechai Haklay & Carolina Tobón (2003) Usability Evaluation and PPGIS: Towards a User-centered Design Approach, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 17:6, 577-592.
Definition
Usability evaluations identify design improvements by having participants complete a set of tasks.
Type
User research
Context
Co-design
Use Case
For an advanced prototyping class, I developed a prototype of an application which collects and analyzes productivity data gathered from a user’s Smart Watch. I prepared a usability evaluation which recorded the time it took six participants to complete eleven different tasks.
This shows the entire architecture of my prototype.
Procedure
To plan a usability evaluation, first list out tasks participants need to complete. The order of the tasks should follow the order a user would normally follow. Consider starting the evaluation with easier tasks.
Create a table which includes each task, the values the tasks measure (time, pass/fail, etc.), and several empty columns which can be used to record the results.
I recommend doing a pilot test with yourself or colleagues to check if the evaluation works well.
Once the usability evaluation is ready, it’s important to select relevant participants.
Make sure to record the results during the evaluation.
Data Analysis
Here is the list of the timed tasks I prepared for my participants. I also asked a few questions about the user experience.
Here are the results of my usability evaluation with three participants.
The results of my usability evaluation helped me identify which parts of my prototype are not intuitive and could use more context or explanation. Overall, my participants were pleased with my design and they felt like it would be useful during the pandemic.