“Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.”
Usability is defined by 5 quality components:
- Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
- Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
- Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
- Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
- Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
“There are many other important quality attributes. A key one is utility, which refers to the design’s functionality: Does it do what users need?
“Usability and utility are equally important and together determine whether something is useful: It matters little that something is easy if it’s not what you want. It’s also no good if the system can hypothetically do what you want, but you can’t make it happen because the user interface is too difficult. To study a design’s utility, you can use the same user research methods that improve usability.
- Utility = whether it provides the features you need.
- Usability = how easy & pleasant these features are to use.
- Useful = usability + utility.
At the core of usability is ensuring that users find value in what you are providing to them. Peter Morville represents this through his User Experience Honeycomb.
Morville notes that in order for there to be a meaningful and valuable user experience, information must be:
Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need
- Usable: Site must be easy to use
- Desirable: Image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation
- Findable: Content needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite
- Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities
- Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them
The 10 Key Principles of User Centered Design
These principles summarize best-practice for the design of usable systems. They are not ‘hard-and-fast’ and can be tailored to suit specific interaction needs.
1 Design for the users and their tasks
Interactive computer systems do not operate in isolation – they exist to support users to perform their work tasks. A successful system meets business objectives through being user-centered and task-oriented. Throughout development, always bear in mind the characteristics of the user population, their real-world tasks, and their working environment.
2 Be consistent
To minimize the learning requirements for users, make the behavior of common interface elements and dialogue boxes as consistent as possible. This often means designing to be consistent with other existing components of the computer system. Although you may be able to design a new slick style of interaction, if it is inconsistent with the rest of the system, it will take users time and effort to learn it and get used to it.
3 Use simple and natural dialogue
The dialogue between user and system should follow the natural sequence implied by the task. There should be no more information presented to the user than is necessary to complete the current task, because each item of irrelevant information adds complexity to the dialogue.
All messages and instructions should be in plain English and should use the vocabulary of the intended audience. Terminology should be defined so that the same term always has the same meaning.
4 Reduce unnecessary mental effort by the user
Users should be able to concentrate on their task without worrying about how the tool they are using – the computer. The more complicated the interaction with the computer, the more frustrated users become and the more distracted they are from their real task. If users have to invest too much mental effort in working out how to operate the computer, they will be less efficient and make more errors. This is particularly dangerous in safety-critical situations, or where a business relies heavily upon the outcome of a task.
Simplify frequent tasks as much as possible. Users should not have to remember information from one part of the system in order to use another part. Instructions for the use of the system should be visible or clearly retrievable whenever appropriate.
5 Provide adequate feedback
Users need to be confident that their actions have been successful. This is usually evident from a distinct change in appearance of the window, e.g. after completing a transaction. If completion will take more than a second or so, a progress or working indicator should be displayed to give the user confidence that the computer is still operating. But avoid presenting the user with unnecessary or irrelevant diagnostic or status information about the internal state of the system.
Feedback should be provided at several levels of interaction. At a low-level, users should receive confirmation that they have operated a control successfully – for example, a button immediately indicates when it has been operated by appearing momentarily pressed in. Users should also be informed when a longer sequence of operations has been completed.
6 Provide adequate navigation mechanisms
Provide enough relevant information for users to know where they are. This can usually be achieved by applying a meaningful and consistent mechanism for assigning titles to windows, and by using range and location indicators such as scroll bars or page numbers. Other mechanisms, such as providing a navigation map, overview, or history of areas visited (bread-crumbs), also should be considered.
There should be clear and easy routes between the different windows users need to access for particular tasks. These should be provided in a form which is appropriate for the user at each stage of a task.
Users often choose system functions by mistake and should be provided with a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue, for example by providing an Undo facility, or a Cancel button in a modal window.
7 Let the user drive
The user should be able to select the information they need in a sequence which is convenient to support each individual task. The system should provide as few constraints as possible on how the task is achieved, but should provide simple ways to achieve frequently performed tasks.
8 Present information clearly
Arrange on-screen information so as to increase the user’s ability to discriminate between different items and groups of data, through the use of spacing, boxes, and visual coding techniques. However, don’t overwhelm the user by providing more information or coding than is necessary to perform the task. Where appropriate, present information in a consistent manner and location across different windows to enhance learn ability.
9 Be helpful
So far as possible, systems should be self-explanatory so that they can be used with the minimum of help and documentation. The information on the window should be expressed in terms of the user’s task. Always use tool tips for buttons labeled with an icon.
The initial on-line help provided should relate to the specific context of interaction on the window. It should be task-oriented, listing the concrete steps to be carried out.
10 Reduce errors
Reduce errors by guiding the user down the correct path to accomplish their goal. Where appropriate to the task, users’ responses should be constrained to avoid error (but not where this would limit the users’ reasonable choice in how to perform their tasks). Similarly, the system should validate data entry as near to the point of input as possible.
Error messages should be expressed in plain language avoiding the use of codes, indicate precisely the problem, and should suggest a solution. Most of all, error messages should be phrased so as to avoid blaming the user.
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