A Usability Problem Inspection Tool: Development and Formative Evaluation

TR Number

Date

2003-04-18

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Virginia Tech

Abstract

Usability inspection methods of user interaction designs have gained importance as an alternative to traditional laboratory-based testing methods because of their cost-effectiveness. However, methods like the heuristic evaluation are ad-hoc, lacking a theoretical foundation. Other, more formal approaches like the cognitive walkthrough are tedious to perform and operate at a high-level, making it difficult to sub-classify problems.

This research involves the development and formative evaluation of the Usability Problem Inspection tool — a cost-effective, structured, flexible usability inspection tool that uses the User Action Framework as an underlying knowledge base. This tool offers focused inspections guided by a particular task or a combination of tasks. It is also possible to limit the scope of inspection by applying filters or abstracting lower level details.

Description

Keywords

UAF, UEM, Usability evaluation method, UPI, UPI tool

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