The
usability evaluation allowed us to better define our system's front and
back office and discover important underlying process issues in our
program. It helped us think more clearly and accurately about the
important aspects of our application that need improvement and in some
cases redesign. Because we have been able to generate a large
prioritized backlog of issues, we can now start to plan and budget the
project more easily and lower the long term development costs. We know
our program participants and program partners will be satisfied. [A. Sirota,
eService Delivery Business Consultant, Ministry of Enterprise,
Opportunity and Innovation, May 2003]
These projects are a must for any successful
product. They apply to evaluating a prototype, a
concept, a product in development or an existing
product. The main objective is to discover the
usability and design issues and provide
recommendations. For example, evaluating a product before release
can uncover missed user requirements or bad design
decisions and avoid loosing your investment.
There are many types of evaluation methods we use
depending on the nature of the project and the
available budget:
Heuristic Evaluations
are the fastest and most economical method
and they are based on standard usability criteria
and heuristics.
Expert reviews
use a team of usability and subject matter experts
to perform cognitive and/or or functional
walkthroughs.
Guideline Reviews
allow reviewing the user interface against the
applicable guidelines. In the case of Web sites,
we compiled our own guidelines based on a number
of books and hundreds of research papers and
projects.
Usability Tests
discover the real user needs and strategies of
use. We conduct usability tests on site, in a
lab or remotely with real users.
Performance Usability
Tests help assess if we reached the
performance objectives of a project. It can also
be user to compare different designs or products.
In case you are buying a product that may impact
the productivity of your employees, this test will
help you decide which product will have the best
results.
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