Software product usability evaluation criteria

1. Usability Overview

1.1 What Is usability

Ease of use puts users rather than systems at the center of the development process. This concept of "user-centered design" refers to the inclusion of things that users are concerned with from the beginning of the design process, users should be the most important factor in any design decision.

• Easy to see easy to discover. Features with deep hiding are not easy to discover and cannot be used.
• Easy to learn. Easy to learn. The easy-to-learn design focuses on tasks that are not often completed, so users may forget how to use them.
• Easy to use. You can perform operations faster when you are familiar with the application. The easy-to-use design focuses on promoting continuous efficiency, which may mean that users must be trained before using the product.

These three are actually conflicting and need to be balanced.

1.2 Usefulness and ease of use

We often confuse usefulness and usability.

• Useful, which is guaranteed by the product planner. Negative example: for example, a machine is easy to use but does not solve the actual problem. The failure of many products is useful first, that is, the failure of the market, rather than the failure of ease of use.
• Ease of use, which is the responsibility of usability engineers. For example, a machine has functions but users do not know how to use them.

Obviously, if a program is very easy to use but has no function, no one will have a reason to use it. If a user is given a very powerful program, but it is difficult to use, the user may resist it or seek other alternatives. By distinguishing these two aspects of one thing, we can avoid all problems due to ease of use during analysis.

1.3 Why focus on usability

• It can reduce the cost of technical support and services.
• It can improve the user's software to any extent.
• It can improve the competitiveness of products.

1.4 How to Get ease of use

• Ease of use is not randomly added. ease of use is part of the system design.
• User-centered design is the best way to achieve good usability.

2. Ease of use design

2.1 Determine usability requirements

As described above, usability requirements are not randomly added and are part of a well-designed system. Therefore, before the design starts, we must clarify our usability requirements and then derive our acceptance criteria.

Example 1.

Description: The product is easy for most users to learn without training.

Acceptance Criteria: 90% of users in a testing team will be able to successfully use this product for the first time to complete the ticket order through this product.

Usability requirements should be specific, clear, and measurable. For example, "user friendly ". It is difficult to find a user-friendly metric. We can find out what users really want by simply asking questions. For example, "friendly user interaction interface.

2.2 Ease of use Checklist

Serial number	Ease of use
1	Whether there are clear usability acceptance criteria or usability goals
2	Whether to consider usability requirements at the beginning of software requirements
3	Whether to follow the user-centered design concept
4	Are users involved in system testing?
5	Whether or not to use usability standards as one of the Software acceptance criteria

2.3 Usability requirements Checklist

Serial number	Usability requirements	Category
1	System Interface
1.1	Interface consistency	Easy to learn and easy to use
1.1.1	Whether the style of the interface is consistent
1.1.2	Whether the entry and interface operations of the same function are consistent
1.1.3	Is the use and arrangement of controls consistent?
1.2	Prompt information	Easy to learn
1.2.1	Whether the menu or button has prompt information
1.2.2	Are there any prompts for mandatory items or other places that need to be explicitly stated?
1.2.3	Indicates whether the information is consistent.
1.3	Interface Configuration	Easy to use
1.3.1	Can unnecessary information be hidden?
1.3.2	Can I change the skin of the software?
1.3.3	Can I change the icon used by the software?
1.3.4	Can I change the name of some information?
1.3.5	Can I append some information?
1.4	Function arrangement	Easy to learn and easy to use
1.4.1	Whether common functions are placed in obvious positions
1.4.2	Placement of uncommon functions will interfere with the use of common functions
1.4.3	Can users quickly find the functions they need?
1.4.4	Whether the function placement meets the user's habits
2	System Functions
2.1	Security and data integrity	Easy to use
2.1.1	Is the system secure?
2.1.2	Whether the system has operation logs
2.1.3	Is the data repaired when it is damaged?
2.1.4	Whether the data has the function of Regular storage and backup
2.1.5	Does network software support local data caching?
2.2	Automatic Error Correction	Easy to use
2.2.1	Whether automatic data correction is allowed
2.2.2	Disable Invalid Data Input
2.2.3	Whether there are obvious alarms or prompts
2.3.1	Allow users to define irregular tables
2.3.2	Allow users to adjust reports
2.3.3	Allow users to define new reports
3	Help System	Easy to learn
3.1	Online Help?
3.2	Provide user manual?
3.3	Real-time help?
3.4	FAQs?
3.5	Whether online learning is provided
3.6	Process Wizard provided?
4	Software Upgrade	Easy to use
4.1	Whether it is a Smart Client
4.2	Whether the integrity and inheritance of the original data can be guaranteed during the upgrade
4.3	Patch supported?
5	System Installation	Easy to use
5.1	Is the installation interface friendly?
5.2	Is the installation process simple?
5.3	Whether there are few user input and settings
5.4	Can I use it after installation?

2.4 Usability Evaluation

1. Whether the design meets the usability requirements;
2. Whether the demand work meets the usability requirements;
3. Whether the description and acceptance criteria of usability are met;
4. Can you rate it?

3. References

1. Wang jianshuo. Three Principles of usability.
2. Ease of use in Software Design.
3. Suzanne Robert tson, James Robert tson. Grasp the demand process. People's post and telecommunications Publishing House