User Experience is refer to the aspect of the user interaction with the product. These aspect of the interaction of the product can be measured or quantified with the tool for measuring it are usability metrics. The behavior and attributes can be developed and further iterated and measured with the technique of Usability evaluation.
The tools for measuring the usability metrics such as the following questions:
- How long will it take the user to accomplish the task in the product ?
- How many users fail to accomplish tasks in the product ?
- How many users get frustration along the user journey of the product?
- How many users are delighted by how easily can be the goals can be easily accomplished?
What is Usability?
The International Standards Organization (ISO 9241–11) identifies three aspects of usability, defining it as ‘‘the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.’’
The Usability Professionals Association (UPA) definition focuses more on the product development process: ‘‘Usability is an approach to product development that incorporates direct user feedback throughout the development cycle in order to reduce costs and create products and tools that meet user needs.’’
In his popular book Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug (2000) provides a simple perspective: ‘‘Usability really just means making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing — whether it’s a website, a fighter jet, or a revolving door — for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated.’’
- All three of these definitions, as well as other definitions of usability, share some common themes:
- A user is involved.
- That user is doing something.
- That user is doing something with a product, system, or other thing.
Usability is also an inherent measurable property of all interactive digital technologies. The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
In the final version of in Heuristic Evaluation (Nielsen 1994) there he describes the guidelines which can enhance the usability of the product. The points noted are in the shown in the diagram below:
ISO 9241–11’s three factors of usability have recently become five in by ISO 25010’s quality in use factors:
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Satisfaction
- Freedom from risk
- Context coverage
Why Usability Evaluation?
Usability Evaluation focuses on how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals. It also refers to how satisfied users are with that process. To gather this information, practitioners use a variety of methods that gather feedback from users about an existing site or plans related to a new site.
-Usability.gov
Usability evaluation helps us to know our products better. The questions like how is the product operated by the users? Are the users easily using our product? Is the product effective to reach their desired goals? Finally the question is the product worth it?
Usability evaluation helps us to gather ideas about the current design issues. They helps us to reflect on their needs and experiences. Meanwhile trying to make sense about the context, stimuli, environment factors, time factors and much more.
Usability can be measured or evaluated which is termed as Usability Metrics. Metric is a way of measuring or evaluating a particular phenomenon or thing. Metrics does exist in our daily lives we do measure elements like temperature, distance, weight, rainfall etc has its own set of metrics. Like other metrics usability metric is measured should result in comparable outcomes. Usability metrics are based on a reliable system of measurement. A usability metrics revels something like interaction between the user and the thing some aspects of effectiveness, efficiency or satisfaction of the product. Usability metrics measures something about the people and their behavior or attitudes.
According to White (2000), the purpose of usability evaluation is to measure the ability of a system to be useful to people who are actually going to use it. ISO 9126 talks of “quality in use” characteristics, which are the combination of other characteristics which will enable a user to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, productivity, safety and with satisfaction in a specified context use.
The usability metrics can answer these critical questions:
- Will the users like the product?
- Is this product more efficient to use than the current product?
- How does the usability of this product compare to the competition?
- What are the most significant usability problems with this product?
- Are improvements being made from one design iteration to the next?
Usability metrics (UM) offer a way to estimate the number of users likely to experience the problem in our product. It shows whether you’re actually improving the user experience from one product to the next product. By measuring comparing the current the iterated new version and evaluating the potential improvements, in our application. UM are key ingredient in calculating the ROI of our investment. Without usability metrics it’s nearly impossible to measure to measure the result and success of the new product or the revamped product. Evaluating the product with a very small sample size usually reveals the most obvious usability problems.
References:
Gray, Wayne D. and Salzman, Marilyn C. (1998): Damaged Merchandise? A Review of Experiments That Compare Usability Evaluation Methods. In Human-Computer Interaction, 13 (3) pp. 203–261
GILBERT COCKTON (2015) The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Usability Evaluation
Tom Tullis, Bill Albert (2012) Measuring The User Experience
