What is usability and how do we get it?
In twenty years of helping make things easier to
use, many people have asked us what usability really is.
At its simplest, we can think of
usability as 'ease of use', judged in terms
of how effective, efficient and satisfying a product is in helping
its intended users achieve their goals.
If we look a bit deeper, there are
more complex usability characteristics. You may want your product to
be:
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appealing |
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intuitive |
- people can guess how to use it, and it
doesn't impose a learning burden
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engaging |
- it draws people
in and they want to continue using
it
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fit
for purpose |
- people can use
it to achieve
their goals effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction
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supportive |
- it helps people do things in
productive ways, helping novices and enabling expert short cuts
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forgiving |
- it makes it easy to spot and
undo mistakes
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safe |
- it doesn't inflict harm on
its
users or others
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How do we get good usability?
The essential thing is to
adopt a user-centred
approach to design. This means first understanding the intended
users, and what they want to achieve, in what circumstances -- the
context of use -- then shaping and refining the design to fit.
For something that is to be
be used in-house, it means
understanding the business, the performance goals and the design
constraints. Then we can help clients achieve successful
usability engineering -- iterative design and evaluation, using
the right usability testing methods at the right time.
Is usability enough?
A truly usable design is shaped to its target
users' goals, preferences, abilities and way of working. The
design of the navigation structure, the task flows and transactional
screen layouts, and the way language is used, all fit in with how
the intended users think and perform.
For complex systems,
usability can be supported by integrating wider
performance
support (on-line help systems, tips and
examples of how to do things, frequently asked questions, procedural
guidance, reference materials, electronic & live help lines,
etc) -- but these should not just be add-ons trying to compensate
for inadequate initial design.
One of the aims of design is
usually to minimise the need for external performance support for
using the technology, and to allow users simply to focus on
achieving things well Find out more
To discuss what you want to achieve and how we
may be able to help, please email
Miles Macleod
or telephone us on +44 (0)1932 844449 (UK business hours)
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