 |
Maturing Usability
Quality in Software, Interaction, and
Value
Publisher Springer-Verlag ISBN#:
978-1846289408
|
 |
| |
|
|
 |
Table of Contents
|
|
Maturing Usability: Quality in Software, Interaction,
and Value contains a collection of
writings from various experts in the field of usability
and user interface development. It provides an
understanding of how current research and practice has
contributed towards improving quality issues in
software, interaction and value. I wrote Chapter 4 which
describes how
usability fits into the
Agile lifecycle.
Other chapters look at how using development tools can
enhance the usability of a system, and how methods and
models can be integrated into the process to help
develop effective user interfaces; theoretical
frameworks on the nature of interactions; techniques and
metrics for evaluation interaction quality; the transfer
of concepts and methods from research to practice;
assessments of the impact that a system has in the real
world; and how to focus on increasing the value of
usability practice for software development and on
increasing value for users. A balance between
theoretical and empirical approaches is maintained
throughout, and all those interested in exploring
usability issues in human-computer interaction will find
this a very useful book.
Part I: Quality in Software. These chapters look at how using
development tools can enhance the usability of a system, and how methods and
models can be integrated into the process to help develop effective user
interfaces.
- Chapter 1. Usability of UIs Generated by an MDA Tool.
Model-driven
architecture (MDA) has recently attracted the interest of both the
research community and industry corporations. It specifies an automated
process for developing interactive applications from high-level models to
code generation. This approach can play a key role in the fields of software
engineering (SE) and human-computer interaction (HCI). Although there are
some MDA-compliant methods for developing user interfaces, none of them
explicitly integrates usability engineering with user interface engineering.
This chapter addresses this issue by showing how the usability of user
interfaces that are generated automatically by an industrial MDA-compliant
CASE tool can be assessed. The goal is to investigate whether MDA-compliant
methods improve software usability through model transformations. To
accomplish this, two usability evaluations were conducted in the code model
(final user interface). Results showed that the usability problems
identified at this level provide valuable feedback on the improvement of
platform independent models (PIM) and platform-specific models (PSM)
supporting the notion of usability produced by construction.
- Chapter 2. Software Quality Engineering: The Leverage for Gaining
Maturity. For users, a software product frequently corresponds to
a black box that must effectively support their business processes.
Consequently, what a stakeholder seeks is a software product that possesses
both required functionality and required quality. Young, immature companies
usually can only afford developing functionalities, while mature
organizations can develop quality, as well. In this sense, the level of
quality observed in a software product is an indicator of the level of
maturity of its developer. One may even say that because functionalities are
always in a product and quality only sometimes, quality is a more
restrictive indicator. Having this in mind, in this chapter we present
software quality engineering from both implementation and managerial
perspectives, discuss aspects of functionality-quality conflict in the
economic and business dimensions, and finally give a few practical
observations and recommendations that might find merit in the real, software
development lifecycle.
- Chapter 3. Connecting Rigorous System Analysis to Experience-Centered
Design. This chapter explores the role that formal modeling
may play in aiding the visualization and implementation of usability, with a
particular emphasis on experience requirements in an ambient and mobile
system. Mechanisms for requirements elicitation and evaluation are
discussed, as well as the role of scenarios and their limitations in
capturing experience requirements. The chapter then discusses the role of
formal modeling by revisiting an analysis based on an exploration of
traditional usability requirements before moving on to consider requirements
more appropriate to a built environment. The role of modeling within the
development process is re-examined by looking at how models may incorporate
knowledge relating to user experience, and how the results of the analysis
of such models may be exploited by human factors and domain experts in their
consideration of user experience issues.
- Chapter 4. Tailoring Usability into Agile Software Development
Projects. Usability, user interface, and interaction design
are among the group of vital, yet mostly overlooked, skills that all
software developers require, yet few seem to have. This is just as true of
agile developers as it is of traditional developers. This chapter examines
both user
experience (UEX) and agile software development (ASD) approaches,
comparing and contrasting the underlying philosophies and practices of each.
Using Agile
Model-Driven Development (AMDD) as the foundation, it then describes
strategies for tailoring UEX into agile methods. It is possible to address
UEX concerns on agile projects, but it requires flexibility and a
willingness to work together on the part of both UEX and ASD practitioners.
- Chapter 5. Model-Based Evaluation: A New Way to Support Usability
Evaluation of Multimodal Interactive Applications.
Multimodal interfaces are becoming more common, even in the field of safety
critical interactive software, mainly due to the naturalness of the
interaction that increases the bandwidth between the user and the system
they are interacting with. However, the specificities of multimodal
interactive systems make it difficult to gather information from the use of
modalities and to extract from this information recommendations for
improving the multimodal user interfaces. This chapter aims at presenting
how abstract information described in models can be fruitfully exploited to
improve the quality of evaluations of multimodal interfaces. The approach
presented in this chapter combines model-based verification (based on
simulation scenario extraction generated from models) and empirical methods
for usability evaluation. Our aim is to try to bring together two separated
(and often opposite) issues, such as usability and reliability, into the
development of safety critical systems. This approach is illustrated via a
Space Ground System of a satellite control room, whose multimodal
interaction technique is fully described by the means of formal models.
Part II: Quality in Interaction. These chapters address theoretical
frameworks on the nature of interactions; techniques and metrics for evaluation
interaction quality; and the transfer of concepts and methods from research to
practice.
- Chapter 6. Systems Usability: Promoting Core-Task Oriented Work
Products. A new concept of systems usability is introduced. Systems
usability provides holistic activity-oriented perspective to
evaluation of the appropriateness of ICT–based smart tools. The concept has
been developed in empirical studies of work in complex industrial
environments. The nuclear power plant domain is used here to exemplify the
systems usability concept and the method developed for evaluating it. In the
chapter, we first identify four practical challenges that the current
approaches in usability studies face: task analysis, data collection
methods, usability measures, and inferences concerning the interface. As a
solution to tackle these challenges we, then, introduce our concept of
systems usability. To reach the demands of systems usability, work tools
must fulfill all three functions of tools: the instrumental, psychological,
and communicative. Because systems usability is visible in practices of
using the tools we, finally, demonstrate how the developed method labeled
contextual assessment of systems usability (CASU) is used for evaluating
systems usability.
- Chapter 7. Usability Work in Professional Website Design: Insights
from Practitioners' Perspectives. This exploratory study aims to
gain insight into how usability practitioners work in professional web
design. This is done through interviews and a grounded analysis. The
description reported here refers to the wider influence of the commercial
context on usability work. This brings to the fore such issues as the
client’s influence on work, negotiation between clients and practitioners,
the adaptation and use of methods, practitioner expertise and the
consideration of people in the usability process. It is believed that this
research focus, which moves toward wider issues in practice, is best
conceptualized from a system level perspective where the goal is to
coordinate resources to add value to the design process.
- Chapter 8. Characterizations, Requirements, and Activities of
User-Centered Design: The KESSU 2.2 Model. ISO 13407 is a
widely used and referred model of user-centered design, UCD. In this
chapter, the principles and activities of ISO 13407 are analyzed. Based on
the analysis, a revised UCD model “the KESSU 2.2” is proposed, including
refinements both in the presentation and in the contents of principles and
activities. The goal is that the refined model is more consistent and
illustrates the essential contents of UCD clearer.
- Chapter 9. Remote Usability Evaluation: Discussion of a General
Framework and Experiences from Research with a Specific Tool. The
goal of this chapter is to present a design space for tools and methods
supporting remote usability evaluation of interactive applications. This
type of approach is acquiring increasing importance because it allows
usability evaluation even when users are in their daily environments.
Several techniques have been developed in this area for addressing various
types of applications that can be used in different contexts. We discuss
them within a unifying framework that can be used to compare the weaknesses
and strengths of the various approaches and identify areas that require
further research work to exploit all the possibilities opened up by remote
evaluation.
- Chapter 10. Utility and Experience in the Evolution of Usability.
In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of usability and its implications
for usability research and practice. We propose that the concept of
usability evolved from a narrow focus on individual performance to a more
inclusive concept of experience and the collective. We address three major
trends: cognition-performance, emotional-experience, and social
context-experience which, together, seem to reflect those pervading the
field of usability. We argue that the movement away from the strictly
cognitive, performance-oriented concerns to embracing emotion and eventually
social and cultural aspects can largely be attributed to two forces. One is
a change in tasks, technologies, and the objectives of systems. The other is
the realization that performance alone in the cognitive sense is not enough
to account for the richness of phenomena influencing people’s interactions
with technology. We then discuss the importance of aesthetics and emotion,
and finally, usability in the context of collaborative and social computing.
Part III: Quality in Value. These chapters assess the impact
that a system has in the real world, focusing on increasing the value of
usability practice for software development and on increasing value for users.
- Chapter 11. Usability and User's Health Issues in Systems
Development: Attitudes and Perspectives. Poor usability and hence a
stressful work situation is still a severe problem in computer-supported
work, despite efforts to increase the focus on these issues. Consequently,
Sweden has a high level of sick rates, particularly in the civil service
sector, and some problems relating to inadequate IT systems with poor
usability. In this chapter, we aim at understanding attitudes about and
practices for integrating usability and users’ health issues in systems
development. Quality in value—i.e. users’ well-being, productivity, and user
satisfaction—is shaped by attitudes and perspectives underpinning discourse
in systems development. These attitudes and perspectives are embedded in the
methods, models, and representations used in systems development, as well as
in discourse and action. In our qualitative study, data was collected
through semi-structured interviews with 127 informants, and in a case study
of an ongoing project in one organization. During analysis of data, we
identified problems with attitudes and perspectives about users and their
work, such as the strong focus on automation, efficiency, and surveillance
of work, which shaped the development of new technology and ultimately
shapes the work situation of the user. Furthermore, we identified that the
work of civil servants was frequently discussed in terms of simple steps and
procedures that can be predefined and automated in accordance with clearly
defined rules and regulations. Finally, we suggest user-centered design and
field studies to address the problems and to improve the understanding of
the users’ needs and work practices in development projects.
- Chapter 12. Usability Evaluation as Idea Generation.
This chapter discusses how to understand the purpose of formative usability
evaluation. We raise concerns about common ways of understanding usability
evaluation, and propose a complementary view of usability evaluation as idea
generation. Implications of this view for researchers and practitioners are
discussed, and it is argued that seeing usability evaluation as idea
generation may help move research in evaluation methods forward. In
addition, we suggest to practitioners some benefits of viewing their work as
idea generation and some concrete techniques based on this view.
- Chapter 13. Putting Value into E-valu-ation. Usability
evaluation measures remain too close to what were originally dependent
variables in factorial experiments. The basis for genuine usability problems
in such variables is not guaranteed, but there has been little progress on
finding replacements since HCI’s shift from the laboratory to field studies.
As a result, the worth of much usability evaluation is questionable. Such
doubts will persist until we can fully align the purpose of evaluation with
the purpose of design, which is to create value in the world through
innovative products and services, whether sold in markets, or provided free
by either individuals or public and voluntary agencies. This chapter reviews
issues with common usability measures and introduces a framework that can
plausibly realign evaluation criteria with design purpose by adapting an
approach from consumer psychology. This provides opportunities to deploy
evaluation measures and instruments that meet the needs of design, rather
than reflect skill sets from psychology and human factors. The current gap
between design and usability evaluation narrows, but an exclusive usability
focus in evaluation becomes impossible. Instead, the role of usability in
delivering or degrading intended worth is placed in a wider worth systems
context. The maturity of usability will thus be evidenced by its effective
integration with a range of design and evaluation concerns. It can longer
assume intrinsic importance, but has to demonstrate it in the context of
achieved product value.
- Chapter 14. HCI and the Economics of User Experience. This
chapter presents a conceptual framework for expanding the scope of current
HCI research, by including economic aspects that affect user experience when
interacting with online services. This framework presents development models
for interactive products and online services. It refers to the concept of
value-oriented design that attempts to use HCI and interaction design as a
part of business design activity. Although this framework is as yet partly
visionary and needs validation, it seems to open interesting perspectives on
user experience design, because interaction design is an important part of
modern business technology.
- Chapter 15. The Future of Usability Evaluation: Increasing Impact on
Value. What does the future of usability evaluation hold? To
gain insights for the future, this chapter first surveys past and current
usability practices, including laboratory usability testing, heuristic
evaluation, methods with roots in anthropology (such as contextual inquiry
and ethnographic research), rapid iterative testing, benchmarking with large
population samples, and multiple-method usability programs. Such
consideration has several benefits, because both individual usability
practitioners and organizations have attained different levels of usability
sophistication and maturity. Usability evaluation methods long employed by
major corporations may still be in the future for smaller or younger
organizations. The chapter begins by discussing 20th-century usability
evaluation, continues with an overview of usability evaluation today, and
concludes with a discussion of what to expect in usability evaluation over
the next years. For each period in the history—and future—of usability
evaluation, the chapter addresses how its impact on software value is
increasing.
- Chapter 16. A Green Paper on Usability Maturation.
Usability maturation manifests in terms of quality in software, in
interaction, and in value, constituting the three parts of this volume. In
this green paper, the three editors present a range of ideas drawn and
synthesized from the fifteen preceding chapters. It is not just a review,
but, more importantly, it is an invitation for interested individuals or
organizations to contribute more views and information, providing answers to
open questions, challenging existing opinions, raising new issues, and
bridging the gaps. In the Introduction, a brief overview of the development
of the field of HCI is presented. In each of the three following sections,
the five chapters comprising the respective part are reviewed and attendant
issues are discussed, leading to research agendas that can serve as a
roadmap for the future work on usability.
You! Anyone who is interested in improving their productivity as a
developer, or who wishes to bring effective usability practices into their team
or organization.
Amazon U.S.
|
Amazon U.K.
|
Amazon Canada
|
|
Other:
We actively work with clients around the world to
improve their information technology (IT) practices,
typically in the role of mentor/coach, team lead, or trainer. A full
description of what we do, and how to contact us, can be
found at Scott W.
Ambler + Associates.
