Usabil的ity Testing.pptVIP

Usability Testing:Evaluating Your Websites Jean Fox Sylvia Fisher Bureau of Labor Statistics Office of Survey Methods Research a presentation for the 4th National Customer Service Conference on August 5, 2002 in Washington DC Usability Design product to fit users’, their tasks, and their work environments Goals Ease of use (speed and accuracy) User satisfaction Originated in military as “Human Factors” Some Usability Factors Ease of learning Efficiency of use Memorability Error frequency and severity Subjective satisfaction Usability Engineering Process to build “Usability” into products Various methods can be used throughout the design lifecycle Methods can be incorporated into design process easily Methods maintain focus on user throughout design Why is there so little usability engineering? Developers sometimes do NOT do usability testing because they believe that it takes too long, is too expensive, and is not critical to development They also may not know how to do it and believe they can afford to learn about user problems during “live” or actual customer use Benefits of usability engineering for the Agency Reduce training costs Reduce development costs Identify and fix problems early Reduce support costs Minimize the need for maintenance and upgrades Design to facilitate maintenance Enhance agency’s reputation - positive “word-of-mouth” trade Larger numbers of “hit” and “return visit” rates What are the benefits of usability engineering? Benefits to the User Less time to complete work Greater success with tasks Increased user satisfaction EXAMPLE: Translating Benefits to the Bottom Line Example from BLS CPI: 85,000 items/month Save 1 second per item 85,000 x 1 second = 24 hours @ $20/hour that’s $480/month = $5,760/year Additional Gains 5 seconds per item = $2,360/month or $28,320/year Sample Usability Problems with Web Sites Navigation Knowing where you are Finding what you want Search mechanism Web site terminology vs. users’ terminolo