Slides from a usability presentation/workshop I gave with Timo Nevalainen for the trainers in the University of Dar es Salaam.

1. Usability Training
UDSM, June 7
Marko Teräs, Timo Nevalainen

2. Kick-Off Questions
Your thoughts on usability?
Your goals and wants for this session

3. Agenda
Definition of Usability
Why Usability?
User-centered design
User Experience
Usability evaluation
Usability testing

4. Definition of Usability
• Usability is the degree to which something - software, hardware or
anything else - is easy to use and a good fit for the people who use it.
• It is a quality or characteristic of a product.
• It is whether a product is efficient, effective and satisfying for those who
use it.
• It is the name for a group of techniques developed by usability
professionals to help create usable products.
• And, it is a shorthand term for a process or approach to creating those
products, also called user-centered design.
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org

5. Definition of Usability
“After all, usability really just means making sure that something
works well: that a person of average (or even below average)
ability and experience can use the thing - whether it’s a Web
site, a fighter jet, or a revolving door - for its intended purpose
without getting hopelessly frustrated.”
Krug, Steve (2006). Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to
Web Usability.

6. Definition of Usability
http://www.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php

7. Definition of Usability
User Experience (Jesse James Garrett) http://jjg.net/ia

8. Why Usability?
The economical point of view
Claire Karat (1990):
The investment ROI (return on investment) of usability is 1:3 - 1:100
Excercise:
300 workers in a middle sized company use a software for a certain task 30
minutes per day.
Because of the weak quality, doing the tasks takes 10 minutes longer than it would
take if the usability had been better taken care of in the software development
process.
How much the company would’ve saved costs per year, if the worker’s pay is 10
dollars per hour.
Answer:
300 users x (10,00 e x 1/6 h) x 200 work days = about 100 000 $ per year
[Here is not counted the additional costs that may come from frustration and
stress or from the weakening quality of work.]

9. User-centered design
Identify need
for human-
centred design
Understand and specify
the context of use
System
satisfies the Specify the user and
Evaluate against specified organizational
design requirements requirements
requirements
Produce design
solutions
http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/about_usability/what_is_ucd.html

10. Intangible
Usability
Psychology
Emotions
& Culture
Affordance
User needs
User experience
Sounds Layout
Video /
Animation Typography
Colors Images
Tangible

11. Intangible
To make usable
content is to
test it Emotions:
To who are we doing? Make people enjoy
Why and where
we are doing? Did the users get
(Design Rationale) what they came for?
How to do it then?
Sounds: Give options Layout:
and are there Guide the User
speakers?
Motion:
How heavy and Fonts that work
does it open?
and few of them.
Images:
Colors: Culture Support
and aesthetics and optimize
Tangible

12. User-centered design
Design a clear and simple navigation system.
According to Web usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, a good
navigation system should answer three questions:
Where am I?
Where have I been?
Where can I go?

13. Usability evaluation
Jakob Nielsen’s Heuristics
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_evaluation.html
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
http://www.usabilitynet.org/management/b_design.htm
Make your own.

14. Usability testing
Light-weight testing can be done more often
Light-weight testing is cheaper and easier to approve
Use real users, real tasks [scenarios]
Observe, don’t interfere/manipulate
Do no harm.

15. More Reading from…
Jakob Nielsen (http://www.useit.com)
Steve Krug (http://www.sensible.com)
“Ginny” Redish (http://www.redish.net)
JoAnn Hackos (http://www.comtech-serv.com)
Jesse James Garrett (http://blog.jjg.net)
Peter Morville (http://semanticstudios.com)
Lou Rosenfeld (http://louisrosenfeld.com)
Sinkkonen, Kuoppala, Parkkinen: Professional Psychology of Usability

16. Feedback us, please
How did you find this training session?
What did you learn?
How would you improve the session?