NPTEL-INTRODUCTION TO USABILITY

INTRODUCTION TO USABILITY
A Definition!
"Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and

implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major
phenomena surrounding them." (ACM SIGCHI).
Core Concern
• Incorporating humans into the design
Human Factors
Role of Human Factors
• We wish to design for the "laymen" users
• Who are they?
• Why to bother about such "characterization"?
Understanding Human Factors
• Let's try to understand the nature of the users and its

importance with an example.
Example
• Consider someone who wants to perform railway ticket booking (traveler/agent)
• Input station names
• Check availability
• Book tickets
• Make payments
• Now consider a DBMS manager who performs database querying - to get the
same information from the Railway database.
• Is this user performing totally different things than the earlier one?
• Technically, both are performing the same work.
• There is the railway database
• Both queries the database
• Both retrieves the information
• Both uses the information
• Difference in "expectations" and "need" of the users
User Classification
• We need to "know the users" in order to design
• Generic classification of users
• Novice
• Intermittent
• Expert
Example - saving a file with "Ctrl+S" vis-à-vis through menu option in MS Word
Interdisciplinary
• Identifying human factors and incorporate those in the design requires knowledge
and expertise in many field of studies.
Considering Human in Design,
Different Design Perspectives
• The same term (User-Centric Design) can be viewed by different stakeholders

in different ways.
• A designer is primarily concerned about the design of the interface elements and
layouts - the creative design aspects.
Taking Humans into the Design
• For a (industrial) product designer, it might refer to the form) (shape, size and
look) of the product
Different Design Perspectives
• An electronic engineer might look at it as adding more features at the hardware

level, such as more sensors, smaller chips to reduce size or more power efficient battery
• We are mostly concerned about the perspective of the application software

developer, who needs to follow a development life cycle that takes care of the user
characteristics, so as to better match the users' needs and expectations
Usability
• We require an explicit measure to judge our design – if we have taken care of the
human factors
The measure is called "Usability
Usability: Definitions and Standards
Definitions
• ISO definition (ISO 9241-210:2009) of usability - "the extent to which a product can
be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and
satisfaction in a specified context of use."
standards
• The product is meant to be used by a specified group of users.
• In other words, a usable product need not be designed "for all".
• The product should allow the users to achieve specified set of goals.
• Thus, putting every conceivable features in a product not necessarily leads to

a usable product.
• The product should be designed for specified context of usage.Clearly, a usable

product need not be so for "all" usage scenario.
• Definition reveals THREE measures
• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Satisfaction
• Jacob Nielsen [2012] argued that usability alone cannot make a product "useful".
• An acceptable product should have two quality attributes
• One is usability and the other is "utility"
• Nielsen proposed FIVE quality components of usability,
• Learnability: the “ease” with which a first time (novice) user performs
"basic" tasks with the system.
• Efficiency: The speed at which the users can complete tasks.
• Memorability: The “ease” with which an intermittent user, who returns

to use the system occasionally (after some gaps), can reestablish "proficiency".
• Errors: The rate at which the users make errors, the "severity" of those
errors and “ease” with which the users can recover from errors.
• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design.
• Utility refers to the "functionality" that the design is supposed to serve
• Measure of the extent to which design supports the "functional needs" (the
features) of the users.
• If we compare Nielsen's framework to the ISO definition, we observe "effectiveness"

might be mapped to "utility".
• The ISO definition therefore provided only two measures for usability: the efficiency
and satisfaction.
• The five components of usability offer a more precise measure - we shall make use
of these components in the subsequent lectures.
User-Centered Design
• Term coined by Shneiderman (1986)
• Objective - to design products that increase usability
• Indicates (active/passive involvement of users in the design life cycle
• Related terms
• "Cooperative design" [Greenbaum and Kyng, 1992]
• "Participatory design" [Schular and Namioka, 1993]
• "Contextual design" [Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1997]
• ISO in its standards prefers to use the term "human-centered design

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INTRODUCTION TO USABILITY

"Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and

• Incorporating humans into the design

Role of Human Factors

• We wish to design for the "laymen" users

• Who are they?

• Why to bother about such "characterization"?

Understanding Human Factors

• Let's try to understand the nature of the users and its

• Consider someone who wants to perform railway ticket booking (traveler/agent)

• Input station names

• There is the railway database

• Both queries the database

• Both retrieves the information

• Both uses the information

• Difference in "expectations" and "need" of the users

• We need to "know the users" in order to design

• Generic classification of users

Considering Human in Design,

Different Design Perspectives

• The same term (User-Centric Design) can be viewed by different stakeholders

Different Design Perspectives

• An electronic engineer might look at it as adding more features at the hardware

• We are mostly concerned about the perspective of the application software

The measure is called "Usability

Usability: Definitions and Standards

• The product is meant to be used by a specified group of users.

• In other words, a usable product need not be designed "for all".

• Thus, putting every conceivable features in a product not necessarily leads to

• The product should be designed for specified context of usage.Clearly, a usable

• An acceptable product should have two quality attributes

• One is usability and the other is "utility"

• Nielsen proposed FIVE quality components of usability,

• Efficiency: The speed at which the users can complete tasks.

• Memorability: The “ease” with which an intermittent user, who returns

• Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design.

• Utility refers to the "functionality" that the design is supposed to serve

• If we compare Nielsen's framework to the ISO definition, we observe "effectiveness"

• Term coined by Shneiderman (1986)

• Objective - to design products that increase usability

• Indicates (active/passive involvement of users in the design life cycle

• "Cooperative design" [Greenbaum and Kyng, 1992]

• "Participatory design" [Schular and Namioka, 1993]

• "Contextual design" [Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1997]

• ISO in its standards prefers to use the term "human-centered design

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