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Usability Engineering

Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction

  • 1st Edition - October 12, 2001
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Mary Beth Rosson, John M. Carroll
  • Language: English

You don't need to be convinced. You know that usability is key to the success of any interactive system-from commercial software to B2B Web sites to handheld devices. But you ne… Read more

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Description

You don't need to be convinced. You know that usability is key to the success of any interactive system-from commercial software to B2B Web sites to handheld devices. But you need skills to make usability part of your product development equation. How will you assess your users' needs and preferences? How will you design effective solutions that are grounded in users' current practices? How will you evaluate and refine these designs to ensure a quality product?

Usability Engineering: Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction is a radical departure from traditional books that emphasize theory and address experts. This book focuses on the realities of product development, showing how user interaction scenarios can make usability practices an integral part of interactive system development. As you'll learn, usability engineering is not the application of inflexible rules; it's a process of analysis, prototyping, and problem solving in which you evaluate tradeoffs, make reasoned decisions, and maximize the overall value of your product.

Key features

  • Written by prominent HCI educators who understand how to teach usability practices to students and professional developers.
  • Interleaves HCI theory and concepts with a running case study demonstrating their application.
  • Gradually elaborates the case study to introduce increasingly sophisticated usability engineering techniques.
  • Analyzes usability issues in realistic scenarios that describe existing or envisioned systems from the perspective of one or more users.
  • Emphasizes the real world of usability engineering-a world in which tradeoffs must be weighed and difficult decisions made to achieve desired results.

Readership

HCI practitioners, usability engineers, software developers, web page designers and developers

Table of contents

FOREWORDPREFACECOLOR PLATES FOLLOWING PAGEChapter 1 - Scenario-Based Usability Engineering1.1 Design by Scenario: Marissa's Gravity Project 1.2 Managing Software Development 1.2.1 Software Engineering 1.2.2 Prototyping and Iterative Development1.3 Usability in Software Development 1.3.1 The Emergence of Usability 1.3.2 Usability Engineering1.4 Scenario-Based Usability Engineering 1.4.1 User Interaction Scenarios 1.4.2 Why Scenarios?1.5 Doing Scenario-Based Usability Engineering 1.5.1 Analysis 1.5.2 Design 1.5.3 Prototyping and Evaluation 1.5.4 Other Approaches1.6 Example-Based Learning of SBD 1.6.1 Case Study: A Virtual Science Fair in MOOsburgSummary and Review Exercises Project Ideas Recommended ReadingChapter 2 - Analyzing Requirements2.1 Analyzing Work Practices 2.2 Getting Users Involved 2.3 Science Fair Case Study: Requirements Analysis 2.3.1 Root Concept 2.3.2 Analysis of Current Practice 2.3.3 Summarizing the Field Data 2.3.4 Problem Scenarios and Claims 2.3.5 Scenarios and Claims as RequirementsSummary and Review Exercises Project Ideas Recommended ReadingChapter 3 - Activity Design3.1 Designing Effective Activities 3.2 Designing Comprehensible Activities 3.3 Designing Satisfying Activities 3.4 Science Fair Case Study: Activity Design 3.4.1 Exploring the Activity Design Space 3.4.2 Activity Design Scenarios and Claims 3.4.3 Refining the Activity Design 3.4.4 Participatory Design 3.4.5 Coherence and CompletenessSummary and Review Exercises Project Ideas Recommended ReadingChapter 4 - Information Design4.1 Stages of Action in Human-Computer Interaction 4.2 Perceiving Information 4.2.1 Gestalt Perception 4.2.2 Organization in User Interface Displays4.3 Interpreting Information 4.3.1 Familiarity 4.3.2 Realism and Refinement 4.3.3 Recognizing Affordances4.4 Making Sense of Information 4.4.1 Consistency 4.4.2 Visual Metaphors 4.4.3 Information Models 4.4.4 Dynamic Displays4.5 Science Fair Case Study: Information Design 4.5.1 Exploring the Information Design Space 4.5.2 Information Scenarios and Claims 4.5.3 Refining the Information Scenarios4.6 Consistency and Coherence Summary and Review Exercises Project IdeasRecommended ReadingChapter 5 - Interaction Design5.1 Selecting a System Goal 5.1.1 Interaction Style 5.1.2 Opportunistic Goals5.2 Planning an Action Sequence 5.2.1 Making Actions Obvious 5.2.2 Simplifying Complex Plans 5.2.3 Flexibility5.3 Executing an Action Sequence 5.3.1 Directness5.3.2 Feedback and Undo5.3.3 Optimizing Performance5.4 Science Fair Case Study: Interaction Design5.4.1 Exploring the Interaction Design Space5.4.2 Interaction Scenarios and Claims5.4.3 Refining the Interaction ScenariosSummary and ReviewExercisesProject IdeasRecommended ReadingChapter 6 - Prototyping6.1 Exploring User Requirements 6.2 Choosing Among Alternatives 6.3 Usability Testing 6.4 Evolutionary Development 6.5 Science Fair Case Study: Prototyping 6.5.1 Scenario Mock-ups 6.5.2 Scenario Machines 6.5.3 Prototyping Alternatives 6.5.4 Evolutionary DevelopmentSummary and Review Exercises Project IdeasRecommended ReadingChapter 7 - Usability Evaluation7.1 Usability Specification for Evaluation7.2 Analytic Methods7.2.1 Usability Inspection7.2.2 Model-Based Analysis7.3 Empirical Methods 7.3.1 Field Studies7.3.2 Usability Testing in a Laboratory7.3.3 Controlled Experiments7.4 Science Fair Case Study: Usability Evaluation7.4.1 Usability Inspection7.4.2 Developing Usability Specifications7.4.3 Testing Usability Specifications7.4.4 Assessing and Refining Usability SpecifictionsSummary and ReviewExercises Project Ideas Recommended ReadingsChapter 8 - User Documentation8.1 The Production Paradox8.2 Paper and Online Manuals8.3 Demonstrations and Tutorials8.4 Information in the Interface8.5 Socially Mediated Documentation8.6 Using Context and Intelligence8.7 Science Fair Case Study: Documentation Design 8.7.1 Exploring the Documentation Design Space8.7.2 Documentation Scenarios and Claims8.7.3 Refining the DocumentationSummary and ReviewExercises Project IdeasRecommended ReadingChapter 9 - Emerging Paradigms for User Interaction9.1 Collaborative Systems9.2 Ubiquitous Computing9.3 Intelligent User Interfaces9.3.1 Natural Language and Multimodal Interaction9.3.2 Software Agents9.4 Simulation and Virtual Reality9.5 Science Fair Case Study: Emerging Interaction Paradigms9.5.1 Collaboration in the Science Fair9.5.2 Ubiquitous Computing in the Science Fair9.5.3 Intelligence in the Science Fair9.5.4 Simulating Reality in the Science Fair9.5.5 Refining the Interaction DesignSummary and ReviewExercisesProject IdeasRecommended ReadingChapter 10 - Usability Engineering in Practice10.1 Usability in Organizations10.1.1 Usability Specialists in a Development Team10.1.2 Cost-Justifying Usability10.2 Internationalization and Localization10.2.1 User Interface Standards10.2.2 Localization10.3 Ethics of Usability10.3.1 Changing Scope of Computing10.3.2 The Digital Divide10.3.3 Meeting the Needs of Special Populations10.3.4 Technology Evolution and Unintended ConsequencesSummary and ReviewExercisesProject IdeasRecommended ReadingsAppendix - Inferential StatisticsGLOSSARYREFERENCESFIGURE CREDITSINDEX

Review quotes

"This book is ideally suited for a problem-based curriculum in which students simultaneously learn good development processes while completing a term project. The book gives excellent guidance, and the case study approach is an excellent organizer and motivator. At last, the proper problem-based textbook."—Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group"One of the nice things about this book is that it identifies where tradeoffs exist in developing user interfaces. Too many books provide guidelines as if they were absolute; unfortunately, this is not the case. Tradeoffs must be constantly made, and understanding how one usability objective can impact another is critical to good design."—Jon Meads, Usability Architects

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: December 6, 2014
  • Language: English

About the authors

MR

Mary Beth Rosson

Mary Beth Rosson has been an associate professor of computer science at Virginia Tech since 1994. Prior to that, she worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center as a research staff member and as manager of tools and architectures. She is the author of many contributed chapters, journal articles, and conference presentations and papers.
Affiliations and expertise
Penn State University

JC

John M. Carroll

John M. Carroll is Professor of Computer Science, Education, and Psychology, and Director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, at Virginia Tech. He has written more than 250 technical papers, more than 25 conference plenary addresses, and 12 books. He serves on 10 editorial boards for journals and handbooks, has won the Rigo Career Achievement Award from ACM, received the Silver Core Award from IFIP, and is a member of the CHI Academy.
Affiliations and expertise
Penn State University

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