T01: Usability and UX: An integrated approach to design and evaluation

Half Day Tutorial

Nigel Bevan (short bio)
Professional Usability Services, United Kingdom

Objectives:

To provide a framework that can be used to integrate traditional approaches to usability with the UX issues that create a good user experience. The framework can be used to identify the outcomes of interaction that will determine the relative importance of usability and UX when designing and evaluating interactive systems.

Content and Benefits:

Many proponents of UX have relegated usability to the role of a "hygiene factor". The tutorial will explain how the relative importance of usability and UX can be identified, and can form part of an integrated approach to specifying and evaluating the quality of a product.

Usability is conventionally associated with goals for effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction, but has traditionally ignored personal hedonic goals, such as for "being competent", "being related to others", or "being special". UX has also identified that people value qualities of interaction such as fun, engagement, aesthetic pleasure and the avoidance of frustration. Another human goal is to use a trustworthy system and avoid any unacceptable risk of adverse consequences of interaction. These are all potential goals that users may have when interacting.

UX emphasizes understanding the timeline of interaction. The tutorial identifies the potentially analyzable or measurable outcomes of each usability and UX goal at each of the following stages: the objective process of interaction, the experience of interaction, the objectively measurable outcomes, the perceived outcomes, and the degree of satisfaction with the each perceived outcome. This generates a matrix in which the specific outcomes for each goal at each stage can potentially be specified, analyzed, and/or measured. This integration of usability and UX provides a more comprehensive approach than the traditional objective usability measures of effectiveness and efficiency and subjective measures of satisfaction.

The potential outcomes extend the range of issues that are might otherwise considered in the design or evaluation of an interactive system, and provide a checklist of issues whose relative importance will depend on the nature of the system and its objectives.

The tutorial will include exercises to apply the classification, and will explain how each outcome can be analyzed or measured.

Target Audience:

Usability and UX practitioners

Bio Sketch of Presenter:

Nigel Bevan is an independent usability consultant with wide industrial and research experience. He has been editor of several international standards for usability, software quality and usability methods. Nigel leads the UXPA Body of Knowledge project. He was a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Human-System Design Support for Changing Technology. He has authored over 80 publications, and has a chapter providing a framework for cost benefits in Cost-Justifying Usability book.

Publications

The tutorial builds on and extends previously published papers by the author (available at www.nigelbevan.com):

1. Bevan, N. (2009) What is the difference between usability and user experience evaluation methods? UXEM'09 Workshop, INTERACT 2009, Uppsala, Sweden.
2. Bevan, N. (2009) Extending quality in use to provide a framework for usability measurement. Proceedings of HCI International 2009, San Diego, California, USA
3. Petrie, H. and Bevan, N. (2009) The evaluation of accessibility, usability and user experience. In: The Universal Access Handbook, C Stephanidis (ed), CRC Press.
4. Bevan, N. (2008) Reducing risk through Human Centred Design. Proceedings of I-USED 2008, Pisa, September 2008.
5. Bevan, N. (2008). Classifying and selecting UX and usability measures. Proceedings of Meaningful Measures: Valid Useful User Experience Measurement (VUUM), 5th COST294-MAUSE Open Workshop, 18th June 2008, Reykjavik, Iceland.
6. Bevan, N. (2008) UX, Usability and ISO Standards. Values, Value and Worth workshop, CHI 2008.
7. Bevan, N, (2007). Contributor to: Human-System Integration in the System Development Process: A New Look. Editors: Richard W. Pew and Anne S. Mavor. National Academies Press. www.nap.edu/catalog/11893.html.