User Interface Evaluation
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Interfaces, built at the MPDL are subject to evaluation. Main focus are all interfaces of the current PubMan solution. Evaluation of the User Interface Engineering team has different approaches: Usability Interviews and tests, GUI Workshops and software based evaluation.
Usability Interviews[edit]
Up to 8 interviews are usually enough to discover the main GUI flaws. The interviewer just provides the task for a participant. The participant does all tasks by his own and should be encouraged to comment on his actions. The interviewer is not recommended to interfere in any form. If the participant gets stacked and there are important steps to follow, he gets a hint how to continue.
If a participant is not able to solve a task or step it will be noted as a fatal usability issue. For later analysis flaws are classified in the following way:
- Fatal = Task could not be finished successfully
- Serious = Task could not be finished on the first attempt or user performance bad
- Minor = The user hesitates or is not sure or does not feel comfortable with the workflow
Participants |
1 | |||||
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Supervisor |
1 plus 1 visitor (usually developers) | |||||
Equipment |
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Duration |
1h | |||||
Results |
Document with notes on user actions for each action/step. The results are analysed after 6 - 8 interviews towards a statistic, providing GUI flaws within use cases. | |||||
Steps |
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edit table |
Workshops[edit]
Participants |
5 - 8 | |||||
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Supervisor |
1 - 2 | |||||
Equipment |
Equipment provided by UIE Team | |||||
Duration |
4h - 6h | |||||
Result |
A rough draft of a graphical user interface part. | |||||
Steps |
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edit table |
Initially the workshop for the short list view was not ment to deliver very much valid results, but when I put the pages from the whiteboard some things were striking. So I counted them for you:
1. Creators are mostly on the first position (18/23 Participants) 2. Title is mostly used as the second field (15/23 Participants) 2. File/Fulltext seems to have an outstanding position because it was placed differently on exposed positions or apart from the list (down, right, top) 3. Most participants prefer a vertical alignment of labels and fields (16/23)
Some participants tried to do a more sophisticated layout - which might mean that they do not like monotonous listings (just guessing).
Software based Evaluation[edit]
TBD