Usability Engineering Process Flow Model - Sivaprasath Selvaraj

Usability Engineering Process flow Model
Presented by: Sivaprasath Selvaraj

Agenda
What is Usability Engineering?
What is Usability?
What makes Usability into Design?
Flow Diagram of Usability Engineering in SDLC
How to fit Usability Engineering in SDLC? Step 1 – Pursuit
Benefits of Usability
Business case for Usability
Lack of Usability
ROI Measures
Approach to Design
Interface Design Occurs Late in Engineering
Less User-Centered Design – More Hidden Costs
More User-Centered Design – Less Hidden Costs

Agenda
Step 2 – Planning
Step 3 – Execution
Step 4 – Monitoring & Control
Value of a Design Strategy
Real Example: Design Strategy
Basic Parameters of User Profiles
User Profile Example
Task Profile Example
Task Prioritization
Environmental Profile
Task Analysis – Before & After
The Purpose of Task Analysis
Navigation Structure
Information Architecture
Wireframes
Prototypes
Peer Review
Expert Review
Heuristic Evaluation

What is Usability Engineering?
Usability engineering is a field that is concerned generally with human-computer interaction and specifically with making human-computer interfaces that have high usability or user friendly. In effect, a user-friendly interface is one that allows users to effectively and efficiently accomplish the tasks for which it was designed.
The term usability engineering (in contrast to interaction design and user experience design) implies more of a focus on assessing and making recommendations to improve usability than it does on design, though Usability Engineers may still engage in design to some extent, particularly design of wire-frames or other prototypes.

What is Usability?
Several formal and informal definitions of usability exist. The most widely recognized is probably the ISO definition:
The usability of an interface is a measure of the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in a particular environment with that interface.
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object.

Benefits of Usability
User Effectiveness
Development Costs
Revenue
Increase success rate and reduce users errors
Improve ease of use and ease of learning
Increase user productivity and user satisfaction
Increase user trust in the system
Reduce support costs and training costs
Reduce development costs and time
Reduce maintenance costs
Increase product sales, revenue and market share
Increase site traffic and transactions/purchases
Attract and retain more customers

Business case for Usability
Increase user satisfaction
Increase user loyalty
Increase user adoption
Reduce development costs
Reduce support costs
Reduce documentation times
Reduce maintenance costs

Lack of Usability
Although the definition of usability may be the subject of some discussion, lack of usability is readily recognizable. Systems that lack usability are characterized by:
Existence of workarounds - because the interface is difficult or does not match workflow in the real world, users develop workarounds to compensate for the inadequacies of the system
Low usage levels - Users use the system as little as possible.
Dissatisfaction - Users, and particularly novices, will find the system difficult or frustrating to use
Rework or double-handling - Inefficient design often means that the same data may need to be entered or read more often than is necessary.
Because incorporating usability is a quality activity, it often occurs that systems with poor usability are also deficient in other areas. For example, they are likely to be crash-prone, poorly documented and difficult to maintain.

ROI Measures

Approach to Design
Technology driven
Component focus
System driven (Use Cases)
Product defect view of quality
Focus on system robustness
User Centered Design driven
Solutions focus
(Real-world) Scenario driven
Task success view of quality
Focus on User Interface robustness

Interface Design Occurs Late in Engineering

Less User-Centered Design – More Hidden Costs

More User-Centered Design – Less Hidden Costs

Flow Diagram of Usability Engineering in SDLC
Design Strategy
Personas & Profiles
Scenarios
Requirement Gathering
Task flow Analysis
NavigationStructure
Wireframes
Final Product OrApplication
Prototypes(Low-Fidelity & Hi-Fidelity)
Usability Testing on Hi-Fidelity prototypes

Usability Engineering in SDLC
Step 1 - Pursuit
People
Process
Technology
Monitoring &Control
Planning
Initiating
Execution
Closure
Pursuit
Design Strategy
In Pursuit stage, POC (Proof of Concept) is created with overflow of Design Strategy.

Step 2 - Planning
People
Process
Technology
Monitoring &Control
Planning
Initiating
Execution
Closure
Pursuit
Refined Design Strategy
1. Business Goals
2. Target Users
3. General Tasks
4. Technological Constraints
5. Marketing / Branding Goals
6. Critical Success Factors
Personas & Profiles
1. User Groups
2. User Profiles
3. Environmental Profiles
4. Task Profiles
Scenarios
Requirement Gathering
1. Interviews
2. Survey
3. Contextuel Observation
4. Focus Groups
5. JAD Sessions
In Planning stage, documents are created in detail, 1. Refined Design Strategy, 2. Personas & Profiles, 3. scenarios and 4. Requirement gathering.

Value of a Design Strategy

Real Example: Design Strategy

Step 3 - Execution
People
Process
Technology
Monitoring &Control
Initiating
Planning
Closure
Execution
Closure
Task flow Analysis
Wireframes
Low Fidelity Prototypes
High Fidelity Prototypes
Once Design Strategy is completed, Execution stage take place with following methods, 1. Task flow Analysis
2. Navigation Structure
3. Information Architecture
4. Wireframes and
5. Low Fidelity & High Fidelity Prototypes

The Purpose of Task Analysis

Task Analysis – Before & After

Wireframes

Prototypes

Step 4 - Monitoring & Control
People
Process
Technology
Monitoring &Control
Initiating
Planning
Closure
Execution
Closure
Peer Review
Expert Review

Peer Review

Expert Review (Subject Matter Experts)

Heuristic evaluation is the most popular of the usability inspection methods. Heuristic evaluation is done as a systematic inspection of a user interface design for usability. The goal of heuristic evaluation is to find the usability problems in the design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process. Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles (the "heuristics").
By Jakob Nielsen
1. Visibility of system status

2. Match between system and the real world

3. User control and freedom

4. Consistency and standards 5. Error prevention .
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

10. Help and documentation

Thank you
Presented by: Sivaprasath Selvaraj

Usability Engineering Process Flow Model - Sivaprasath Selvaraj

by Sivaprasath Selvaraj on Apr 19, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Usability Engineering Process Flow Model - Sivaprasath Selvaraj Presentation Transcript