We investigated the relative effectiveness of empirical usabitit y testing and individual and team walkthrough methods in identifying usability problems in two graphical user interface office systems.The findings were replicated across the two systems and show that the empirical testing condition identified the largest number of problems, and identified a significant number of relatively severe problems that were missed by the walkthrough conditions. Team walkthroughs achieved better results than individual walkthroughs in some areas. About a third of the significant usability problems identfled were common across all methods. Cost-effectiveness data show that empirical testing required the same or less time to identify each problem when compared to walkthroughs.
When we started this column last year, we had fully intended on trying to corner some of the overseas SIGCHI membership and capture their views on key distinctions between North American and "other" brands of HCI work (both research and applied). This has proven difficult to do, not because differences do not exist, but because in most areas we are more similar than different. In broad terms we are all interested in improving the quality of human computer interaction, though we may focus in different areas when we measure such quality. For example, I still think it is safe to say that North Americans place more emphasis on minimizing user effort in applied HCI work, while Scandinavians place more effort on improving quality of work (which may mean something different than minimizing keystrokes). That this is not "news" is related to the fact that these different communities have been in communication for some time now. Scandinavians are better able to discuss GOMS models, and North Americans better able to discuss participatory design.
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