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Human Factors and Ergonomics (SIT22008)

5-1. Usability Engineering I: Design with Users, Usability Evaluation

A very fundamental but very critical question is here. “Why do you need to involve users in your product development process?”

I guess you already know the answer. And the answer is related to this term: USABILITY. What is usability, then? As Usability comes Use + Ability, it means that ‘your product CAN be easily USED by people, or not’. If a product is very easy to control with its intuitive interfaces, a user of this product will say ‘Oh, I’m able to use it’. And it’s the same meaning to ‘Oh, it’s usable’.

So, the usability is saying if a product provides usable features or not. And the judgment about ‘it’s usable or not’ is confirmed by users, not product developers or designers. If users don’t like to use the product (or its interface or particular features), then the product is not user-friendly made. Successful products need to be made as it is liked by users.

How to make a product that will be successfully liked by users? Then, involve users in the product development process, and ask them how to make, what they need, and what they want. This is now the basics of product development at a company, and every product developer and designer should know.

Keywords: #usability, #usability testing, #usability evaluation, #participatory design

FYI, visit NNgroup (Nielsen Norman Group)’s YouTube channel. They provide a lot informative videos to learn!

AJ&Smart’s videos are also very good!

[Video Lectures]

A. Design with Users (Participatory Design)

• Designers are not users (Jakob Nielsen)

• User testing facilitation techniques

• Participatory Methods

• Waze connected citizens program: The city as a “living lab”

• other videos/materials
  • How to do user research within constraints
  • Participatory design workshop with seniors
  • The need for user involvement in smart cities (TED) by Kristin Næss

B. Usability

• What is usability? (Unusable: A fun podcast about bad UI/UX)

• Usefulness = Utility + Usability (Jakob Nielsen)

C. Usability Testing

• What is Usability Testing?

• Usability testing - Why & How (Jakob Nielsen)

• Usability testing - the first 5 users (Jakob Nielsen)

• Mobile usability testing setup

• Qualitative & Quantitative Studies

• How to do a user interview (from Google Ventures updated)

• [case study] Smartphone usability evaluation by LG

• [case study] Google’s case (Are you sure that 5 people gives 85% of core usability problems? Really?)

• [case study] Usability Testing of Fruit (fun!)

• [case study] Focus group in real (also fun!) (see full series from here)

• other videos/materials
  • User Testing based on Design Sprint 2.0
  • Introduction to UX Metrics
  • Usability Testing Tips & Tools: Powerful UX Research Method
  • Usability testing lecture (This lecture is good, but it’s too long)
  • Top 10 Web-Design Mistakes of 2021

Assignments

• Find related essay assignment from Here.
• NOTE. The assignment topic might be changed during the semester but not updated in this site. Please always check LMS.handong.edu.

List of Video Lectures

• 1. Introduction to HF/E
• 2-1. Physical Ergonomics I: Biomechanics
• 2-2. Physical Ergonomics II: Anthropometry, ergonomics at workplace, virtual ergonomics
• 3-1. Cognitive Ergonomics I: Information Processing Model
• 3-2. Cognitive Ergonomics II: Human error, cognitive training, and fight or flight response
• 4-1. Emotional Ergonomics I: Emotional Engineering, Measurement of Human Emotion
• 4-2. Emotional Ergonomics II: Emotional Design
• 5-1. Usability I: Design with Users & Usability Evaluation
• 5-2. Usability II: User-Centered Design Principles