Usability: Adoption, Measurement, Value

Abstract

Objective We searched for the application of usability in the literature with a focus on adoption, measurements employed, and demonstrated value. Five human factors domains served as a platform for our reflection, which included the last 20 years. Background As usability studies continue to accumulate, there has been only a little past reflection on usability and contributions across a variety of applications. Our research provides a background for general usability, and we target specific usability research subareas within transportation, aging populations, autistic populations, telehealth, and cybersecurity. Method “Usability” research was explored across five different domains within human factors. The goal was not to perform an exhaustive review but, rather, sample usability practices within several specific subareas. We focused on answering three questions: How was usability adopted? How was it measured? How was it framed in terms of value? Conclusion We found that usability is very domain specific. Usability benchmarking studies and empirical standards are rare. The value associated with improving usability ranged widely—from monetary benefits to saving lives. Thus, researchers are motivated to further improve usability practices. A number of data collection and interpretation challenges still call for solutions. Application Findings offer insight into the development of usability, as applied across a variety of subdomains. Our reflection ought to inform future theory development efforts. We are concerned about the lack of established benchmarks, which can help ground data interpretation. Future research should address this gap in the literature. We note that our findings can be used to develop better training materials for future usability researchers.

COG Tool: An Automated Cognitive Measurement of Workload for Mobile Event Logging

“…The data for average cognitive load has been summarised based on the results for each of the metrics by considering all users. In alignment of the study conducted by [47] and [39], positive relationships are observed for tasks with highest effort for cognitive load with those assigned for the following categories: for highest task time [48]; [27], the number of touches [32] error rate [1], count of help visit [36]; [37], reaction time [48]; [44] and duration on help [34]. Firstly, the tool is able to support researchers within human-computer interactions in having a framework that automates cognitive load measurement metrics with mobile applications.…”

“…Task success rate (TS) [19]; [26]; [27] Number of errors (NOE) [28]; [18]; [1] Task time (TT) [29]; [19]; [30] Number of touches (NOT) [29]; [28]; [31]; [32] Duration on help (DOH) [33]; [34]; [35] Help visit count (HA) [33]; [36]; [37] Total effort (EF) [39]; [40]; [39] Reaction time (RT) [19]; [41]; [42]; [43]; [44] Based upon a review of measurements of cognitive load and the objective, low-level metrics, the proposed metrics for cognitive load are shown in Table 3. This constitutes proposed logging of metrics of cognitive load (CLOG), which may be suitable for measurement in a way that is automated through the logging of a user's interaction.…”

Microscope Usability Evaluation Based on Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…Usability studies originated from the application of personal computer products, which were born in the United States in the 1980s, by coordinating computer operating systems to make it easier for ordinary users to use high-tech products. In the late 1980s, researchers began to pay attention to prototype design and iterative evaluation of product development process and proposed to collect product information and usage data through product sample test to carry out usability evaluation of products, to provide a reference for product design principles [2]. Usability evaluation is a multifactor concept that involves ease of use, system effectiveness, user satisfaction, and objectivespecific evaluations that relate these different levels of factors to the actual user environment and play an important role in the product decision-making process.…”

Usability of state public health department websites for communication during a pandemic: A heuristic evaluation

“…Using context specific guidelines when evaluating interactive systems have been shown to result in an increase in the number of usability problems uncovered when compared to evaluations that only use generic heuristics ( Afacan and Erbug, 2009 ; Jimenez et al, 2012 ). Further, usability evaluations need to be domain specific – usability criteria in consumer products design can significantly differ from usability criteria for the transportation industry, for example ( Mator et al, 2020 ). Additionally, usability evaluations that incorporate a combination of methods such as heuristic evaluations and user testing when feasible, allow for discovery of more usability problems within a shorter duration ( Solano et al, 2016 ).…”