Usability Engineering Faisal Imran

Introduction
Faisal Imran
Ph.D. Computer Science
Università degli Studi di
Torino

Research areas
Privacy Preserving Data
Mining Differential Privacy
Machine Learning

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Course
Information
Course Code: SEN‐756

Course Title: Usability Engineering

Credit Hours: 3
Assessment

Details Marks
Quizzes (total of 4, 2 before 10
midterm and 2 after midterm exam)
Assignments 10
Group Project 10
Mid‐term exam 20
Final exam 50
Usability engineering
books/Resources
“Usability Engineering”, Author: Jacob Neilson
“The Design of Everyday Things”, Author: Donald Norman
“Interaction Design beyond HCI”, Author: Yvonne Rogers,
Helen Sharp
“The basics of user experience design”, Interaction design
Process Foundation, 2002 [Online Book]
‐Usability Engineering‐
UE/HCI What? UE/HCI
Why?
What happens when a human and a computer system
interact to perform a task?
• task ‐ write document, calculate budget, solve equation, learn
about Bosnia, drive home, make a reservation, land a plane...

Why is this important?

1. Computer systems affect every person
2. Safety, satisfaction, utility is critical
3. Product success depends on ease of use
Usability
engineering
Usability engineering is a field that focuses on the interaction between
humans and computer interfaces. In the most basic of terms, a
usability engineer works on making human operators happy with the
experience of using the interface.

Usability engineering is a professional discipline that focuses on

improving the usability of interactive systems. It draws on theories
from computer science and psychology to define problems that occur
during the use of such a system. Usability engineering involves the
testing of designs at various stages of the development process, with
users or with usability experts
Holzinger, Andreas. "Usability engineering methods for software developers." Communications of the ACM 48.1 (2005): 71‐74.
Usability Engineering
Encompasses
• Usability [Tools, Technologies and Principles to
ensure Usability]
• Interaction Design [Effective interaction design]
• User experience
• Includes SDLC life cycle and processes
Usabilit
y
Usability is the extent to which a product can be used by
intended users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness,
efficiency, and satisfaction.

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
The 5 Characteristics of Usable
Products
Effectiveness = Task
Completion
Effectiveness is about whether users can complete their
goals with a high degree of accuracy.

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
Efficiency = Quick‐And‐
Easy
• If a user does complete their desired task, how quickly
and easily did they complete it?

• Users might have completed the task, but the way they
completed it was not very efficient.

• Usability professionals are looking at roadblocks

encountered in this situation
Engagement
Engagement refers to the level of engagement a system offers.
Error
Tolerance
Error tolerance is to minimize errors from occurring and to
ensure that a user can easily recover from an error and get back
to what he or she was doing.
Ease of
Learning
If you want a product to be
used regularly, then you want
the users to be able to learn
the product easily so that
when they use it again, it
comes as second nature.

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
Usability and other considerations
Given that the system is socially acceptable, we can further analyze
its practical acceptability with various categories, some traditional
categories and a category of usefulness

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
System acceptability attributes model

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
Scale to measure subjective satisfaction

Some semantic differential scales to measure subjective

satisfaction with computers

https://www.interaction‐design.org/literature/article/an‐introduction‐to‐usability
The difference between efficiency and
effectiveness

Satisfaction
Is ensured by incorporating
Good user experience

Learnability
the capability of interface to help
user in learning /memorizing
functionality of different controls
User interaction (UI)
User experience
(UX)
• "User experience" encompasses all aspects of the
end‐ user's interaction with the company, its services,
and its products. [Donald Norman]
• User experience goals are derived from user emotions
and feelings.
• If usability goals are implemented than and only then
user experience goals can be met.
Why user experience is needed
• To design interactive systems which are:
• Satisfying
• Enjoyable
• Helpful
• Motivating
• Entertaining
• Rewarding
• Emotionally fulfilling
 Difference between

ui/ux/cx
Remember the below image
User interface (UI) is the point of interaction
between the brand and customers.

It’s about optimizing the

interface that users interact
with during a specific portion of
their journey
The sole focus of use experience (UX) is to
optimize a product or service to the complete
satisfaction of the customer

It focuses on achieving this

goal by enhancing the usability,
accessibility and enjoyability of
whatever is being offered
Customer experience is extremely similar to user
experience. But there is a small difference

Unlike UX which focuses

solely on customer’s
satisfaction with a produce
or service, CX is centered on
the customer’s entire
experience.
Let’s see an
Example
‐Group
Project‐
Semester‐long team effort
Group Project
Design and evaluate an interface
0 ‐ Team formation & topic choice
1 ‐ Understand the problem space
Main 4 parts worth ~10% each
2 ‐ Exploring the design space
Presentation, documentation ~ 5%
3 ‐ Prototype
4 ‐ Evaluation
Group Project
Details
Design and evaluate an interface
0 ‐ Team formation & topic choice
1 ‐ Understand the problem space
2 ‐ Exploring the design space
3 ‐ Prototype
4 ‐ Evaluation
Group Project Teams
3 people
• You decide (or I will!)
• Diverse is best!
• Consider schedules
Reference