Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Our design-oriented usability evaluation paper appeared on the Int. Journal of HCI


Finally our paper on a design-oriented approach to perceived usability has been made available on the International Journal of HCI in its accepted, unedited version. Final version of archive on the printed journal issue will be published soon.

Access paper (with subscription here)>>>>

DEEP - Design-oriented Evaluation of Perceived usability
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Volume 99999, Issue 1, 2011, Page 1
Authors: Tao Yang; Jared Linder; Davide Bolchini
DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2011.586320

Abstract:

Existing perceived usability questionnaires detect the appearance of usability issues rather than the underlying design generating those issues. This limits the capability of existing instruments to directly inform design recommendations.

To address this problem, we created and validated a usability questionnaire structured around the analytical composition of the design. A four-stage process was followed. First, 3 usability experts refined 54 questions from highly-cited usability questionnaires and structured them around 6 design dimensions. Second, 12 raters scored the questions by their relevance to assess usability. Third, questions and dimensions were then improved through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (N=196), and fourth, further enhanced through confirmatory factor analysis (N=362).

The result is DEEP, a 19-question usability questionnaire based on 5 main design dimensions (content, information architecture, navigation, layout, and visual guidance). DEEP can be used to capture detailed usability feedback that more directly relates to specific aspects of design requirements.