The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design

By Deborah J. Mayhew

Chapter 10: Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation

Chapter 10: Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation

Purpose

The purpose of the Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation task is to get some quick and early feedback on the usability of the Conceptual Model Design mock-ups generated in the previous two tasks. Formal evaluation techniques are much more objective and effective than just doing a demo and asking for subjective feedback from users.

Iterative design and evaluation can be efficiently and effectively conducted at a time when no major investment or commitment in detailed design or code has been made to any particular user interface design. Changes are thus simple and easy to make in response to findings. Refining the Conceptual Model Design through Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation before either Detailed User Interface Design or development have begun minimizes costly revisions to completed designs or code. Spending resources now on usability evaluation saves resources in the long run by minimizing modifications to design or code during development and after implementation.

The Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation task uses formal techniques that are much more objective than simply asking for feedback from users

Description

The first decision to make is whether a given evaluation will focus on ease of learning or ease of use. Whether one or the other or both (in different evaluations) will be studied depends on the usability goals established during the Usability Goal Setting task. One technique for evaluation is formal usability testing . For each iteration, three to ten representative users (depending on factors such as diversity of users...

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The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design

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Chapter 10: Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation

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