Perspective-based Usability Inspection: An Empirical Validation of Efficacy
Perspective-based Usability Inspection: An Empirical Validation of Efficacy
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Date
2000-10-06
Authors
Zhang, Zhijun
Basili, Victor
Shneiderman, Ben
Advisor
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Abstract
Inspection is a fundamental means of achieving software usability. Past
research showed that the current
usability inspection techniques were rather ineffective. We developed
perspective-based usability inspection,
which divides the large variety of usability issues along different
perspectives and focuses each inspection
session on one perspective. We conducted a controlled experiment to study
its effectiveness, using a post-
test only control group experimental design, with 24 professionals as
subjects. The control group used
heuristic evaluation, which is the most popular technique for usability
inspection. The experimental design
and the results are presented, which show that inspectors applying
perspective-based inspection not only
found more usability problems related to their assigned perspectives, but
also found more overall problems.
Perspective-based inspection was shown to be more effective for the
aggregated results of multiple inspectors,
finding about 30% more usability problems for 3 inspectors. A management
implication of this study is that
assigning inspectors more specific responsibilities leads to higher
performance. Internal and external threats
to validity are discussed to help better interpret the results and to
guide future empirical studies.
(Also cross-referenced as HCIL 99-33)
(Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-2000-72)