Usability resources
===============
from Linda Van Roosmalen

I want to thank everyone who gave me advise on where to find good resources
on usability testing.

A summary of the responses I got (so far):
____________________
I think that you could work with just about any book on usability. I would
however recommend a book called "Usability Engineering" by Xristine Faulkner
(Macmillan press, 2000). That book like many others use the ISO definition
of usability as measures of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.
Satisfaction is operationalised as absence of discomfort in good old
ergonomical tradition... Not very good in my opinion, so therefore I would
recommend a qualitative analysis of comfort. If you need measurement of it
for some reason, I suggest that you design a questionnaire for that specific
purpose. Subjective usability in the SUMI questionnaire might also work, but
one have to pay for using that. In general, subjective qualities are
difficult to measure. I would recommend you to complement a traditional
usability testing with something more. Take a look at the proceedings from
the International Conference on Affective Human Factors Design:

http://www.idea.unimas.my/cahd2001/

The following links may also be interesting:
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Oosterholt/rho_txt.htm
http://www.usabilitynet.org/methods/testmeasure/pleasure.asp

I'm working with IT in the home and I've focused my evaluations on detecting
problems regarding what I call use quality objectives or use qualities. In
the case of infotainment I look for problems with ease, togetherness among
users, and a seductive experience. But I don't try to measure these use
qualities. The reason for using those qualities is that I, in observations
and interviews, have found them to be core values in the use of infotainment
appliances.

Hope that I could give you some useful input!

Best Regards,
// Mattias
______________________
Donald Norman's books could be of any help for you: "The design of everyday
things" could be a start. It is not related directly to usability Testing
but usability is the core issue in it, having several good examples and some
theoretical development. Its bibliography could also be helpful.

Carlos Peralta
Product Design Lecturer
Glasgow School of Art
_____________________
The book you need is An Introduction to Usability by Patrick Jordan (I think
this is the title but I am not at my office today). In fact Patrick Jordan
has written and co-edited a number of books on usability in design and he is
pretty much an authority on the subject. He used to be head of ergonomics at
Philips Design in the Netherlands.

PLease get back if you need further info as I carried out some usability
tests of toothbrushes, phones and gents shavers as part of my PhD.

Regards,

Paul Rodgers
Reader in Design
Napier University
Edinburgh
Scotland
___________________
You may want to call Prof. Bruce Hanington at the CMU School of Design. I
am sure he can help you. He is at 412-268-1641 (office). Email is
bmh@andrew.cmu.edu.

For further information on Bruce, you can check the Design Web cite.

Regards,

Richard Buchanan
Professor of Design
School of Design
Carnegie Mellon University
________________
I've enjoyed one called HUman Factors in Product Design, it's a compilation
on usability testing in products' speeches in an ergonomics conference. I
don't have the whole reference at hand, but I guess it's the only book
called like this. Hope this helps! regards,

Maria Camacho
___________

Ms. Linda van Roosmalen, PhD, IDSA
University of Pittsburgh
Injury Risk Assessment and Prevention Laboratory
Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology
5055 Forbes Tower, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: 412 3836794 / Fax: 412 3836597
www.rercwts.pitt.edu / www.pitt.edu/~lvanroos

posted by [jochen denzinger] at [19:05]