Usability

Why we do what we do.

Presented by Ty Tabernik, MS, PMP
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 Usability
What is it?

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Definitions

“Easy” = “something you can do”

“Usable” = “something you just do”

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What is usability?

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What is usability?

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What is usability?
USABILITY IS “THE EXTENT TO
WHICH A PRODUCT CAN BE USED
BY SPECIFIED USERS TO ACHIEVE
SPECIFIED GOALS WITH
EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY AND
SATISFACTION IN A SPECIFIED
CONTEXT OF USE.”
International Organization for Standardization
ISO 9241 – Part 11
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 Goals and perceptions
• There needs to be a specific goal
• The goal needs to be defined in
terms of the user’s perception and
not the designer’s perception.

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Perception

A
SNAKE
IN THE
THE GRASS

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1966 Mustang Convertible

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 How to design for usability?
We usually design/organize to answer
the following questions
Who will use it?
What will it do?
Where will it be used?
When will it be used?
Why will it be used?
How will it be used?
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How to design for usability?
User Centered Design would try to
answer the following questions
Who will use it?
What will they do with it?
Where will they use it?
When will they use it?
Why will they use it?
How will they use it?
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 A simple change of attitude
Rather than to ask the question as:
What do you want the system, or
the organization, or the product to
do?
Ask the question
How do you want to be able to use
the product, the organization, or
the system?

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A simple change in attitude

“A project management system that

doesn’t incorporate robust and
useful feedback mechanisms, so that
the actual people doing the work can
tell the system the truth about what
is happening now, isn’t very useful
for real world management.”
Alan Cooper “The Inmates are Running the Asylum”

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 Usability and perceptions
• There were over 500,000 fire and
smoke alarms sold last year.
• The designer designed a flashy
package that told you all about the
product and the halogen this and
flashing that.
• We don’t want a fire alarm.
• We want security – preferably loud.

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 Why usability?
• Multidata
• Therac-25
• February 1991 SCUD vs. Patriot
• December 2000 Osprey Tilt-Rotor
crash
• Hershey’s SAP implementation
• Foxmeyer
• eBay
• Audi
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 Why design for the user?
• Microsoft calculator – no
multiplication and what does the
asterisk do?
• Scroll bars on web pages – had been
called “elevators” at one time.
• The screen size and resolution of the
developer versus that of the user.
• The phone versus the keypad – why
are they different?

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 Why design for the user?
• Why is the scroll bar on the right and
the menu selections are on the left
on most web pages?
– Did someone say they wanted require
people to move the mouse as far as
possible to get things done?
– Did someone say “it looks good”

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 Usability and the Project

• Is your project scope written in terms

of what the user wants or what the
project is designed to do.

• Does it read “the system will” or

does it read “the user will”?

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 Usability and the Project
• There are only four steps for you to
take as Project Manager and they
are the same steps you already are
taking:
1. Plan
2. Analyze and develop requirements
3. Design
4. Evaluate the design
• Return to the planning stage
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 Usability for the Project
• From a product standpoint
– Relate the scope to the user.

• From a project standpoint

– Relate the project to the scope

• From a Project Management standpoint

– Relate organization of the project team
to the user and scope.
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Organizing for usability?

“Perhaps as many as a
third of the population are
not comfortable with
project type work at all.”

Max Wideman (Fellow PMI)

Available at:
http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/profiles/conclusion.htm

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 Project Usability Standards
• PMBOK (Project Management Body
of Knowledge)
• International Organization for
Standardization
– ISO 13407
– ISO/TR 16982:2002
– ESSI PET project and other studies
• Usability in general
– ISO 9241 – Part 11

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 ISO 13407
• Usability is frequently referred to as
“Quality in use”

• ISO 13407 explains how to achieve

quality in use by incorporating user
centered design activities
throughout the life cycle of
interactive computer based systems.

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 ISO 13407
• According to ISO 13407 there are
four user centered design activities
that need to take place at all stages
during a project – they include:
1. Understand and specify the context of
use.
2. Specify the user and organizational
requirements.
3. Produce design solutions
4. Evaluate designs against
requirements
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 ISO/TR 16982:2002
• ISO/TR 16982:2002 provides
information on human-centered
usability methods which can be used
for design and evaluation. It details
the advantages, disadvantages and
other factors relevant to using each
usability method.

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 ISO/TR 16982:2002
• ISO/TR 16982:2002 explains the
implications of the stage of the life
cycle and the individual project
characteristics for the selection of
usability methods and provides
examples of usability methods in
context.

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Usability standards
The main users of ISO/TR 16982:2002
will be project managers. It therefore
addresses technical human factors
and ergonomics issues only to the
extent necessary to allow managers
to understand their relevance and
importance in the design process as
a whole.
International Organization for Standardization

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 Usability standards
• The ESSI PET project found that 60%
of software defects arise from
usability errors, while only 15% are
related to functionality.

– ESSI is the European Systems and

Software Initiative
– PET is project 10438 a study of Prevention
of Errors through Experience-related Test
Efforts.

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 On-line usability
• Usability
– LIFT from www.usablenet.com
– This is the Nielsen Norman Group

• Accessibility
– BOBBY from CAST (Center for Applied
Special Technology
– http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby

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Why design for the user

On average, users fail over 35% of

the time when using websites.

Source:http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20031124.html

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On-line usability
E-Tailers Lost More Than $6.1bn By
Failing to Provide Sufficient Online
Customer Service
New Report From Datamonitor
Estimates That For Every Complete
On-Line Transaction, Nearly Four
Times as Many Are Abandoned

Datamonitor -- 7 July 2000

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 Conclusion
• There are standards for usability in
projects and products
• There is a high cost to ignoring
requirements for usability
• The move toward a more usable
system or product or service
frequently requires only a change in
attitude and perception
• There is help available.

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 Want more information
• Society for Technical
Communications- Usability Special
Interest Group (SIG)
• CAST
• Nielsen Norman Group
• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
• ACM (Association for Computing
Machinery – IEEE) SIGCHI

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 Want more information
• Human Factors Research Group
(HFRG)
• SUMI (Software Usability
Measurement Inventory)
• MUMMS (Measuring the Usability of
Multi-Media Software)
• WAMMI (Web Analysis and
MeasureMent Inventory)

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 Want more information
• Product usability testing centers
• User Interface Research @ PARC
• UPA (Usability Professionals’
Organization

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 Want more information?
• Studies being done on the Human-
Computer Interface and the Human-
Information Interface
– Information available at
http://www.hcirn.com

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 Final note
• The Tibetan monk

• Microsoft Project 60-day evaluation

version

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 Thank you
• Questions?

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