Annotated Bibliography

• This is an excellent article that describes how usability techniques can be integrated into the software development cycle. Many diagrams are included to help illustrate the processes that the article discusses.
  
  Anderson, Jean, Francie Fleek, Kathi Garrity, and Fred Drake. “Integrating Usability Techniques into Software Development”, IEEE Software January/February 2001: 46-53.
  
  
  
• WordFixers maintains a website that contains good user interface techniques. Many user interface concepts are also described.
  
  Arlov, Laura. “WordFixers How to Design a UI.” 1997. http://www.wordfixers.no/process.html (6 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• A synopsis of a meeting with many large corporations to determine a standard for Usability Testing Reports. This meeting was the prelude to the development of the Industry Usability Report Project (IUSR Project).
  
  Blanchard, Harry. “SIGCHI Bulletin Vol.30 No.3, July 1998 Standards: Standards for Usability Testing.” July 3, 1998. http://www.acm.org/sigchi/bulletin/1998.3/standards.html (5 Oct 2000).
  
  
  
• A website discussing Usability Testing written by a masters student while taking a “Cognitive Ergonomics” course. The website also contains an annotated bibliography.
  
  Chugh, Jase. “Usability Testing - Main Page.” 2/28/1997. http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~saul/681/1997/jas/index.htm (12 March 2001)
  
  
  
• This article discusses the benefits associated with usability testing with an emphasis on cost benefit analysis.
  
  Donahue, George. “Usability and the Bottom Line”, IEEE Software January/February 2001: 31-37.
  
  
  
• This article explains the basics behind usability. It explains how a development cycle must be altered in order to fully practice good usability techniques.
  
  Ferre, Xavier, Natalia Juristo, Helmut Windl, and Larry Constantine. “Usability Basics for Software Developers”, IEEE Software January/February 2001: 22-29.
  
  
  
• Manual used in Human Factor Inc..’s Usability Testing course:
  
  Human Factors International Practical Usability Testing for Software Applications Version 2.0 . Iowa: Human Factors International. 1999.
  
  
  
• IBM lists a brief description of the ISO 9241/13407 guidelines.
  
  IBM. “IBM-Ease of Use-ISO-IEC Standards.” http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/583 (20 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• Interaction Design is a company that offers many usability services. This web page describes an overview of a typical usability testing study.
  
  Interaction Design. “Running a usability test at Interaction Design, Inc.” 2000. http://www.user/com/testing-details.htm (22 Mar 2001)
  
  
  
• The Information Resource Management Group at University of Colorado maintains a web page that lists guidelines on how to perform usability testing. The site also contains a list of definitions.
  
  IRM. “Usability Testing.” 9/7/1999. http://delphi.colorado.edu/~irm/stds/usability/index.html (4 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• The Industry Usability Report Project (IUSR Project) which is a project run by the U.S. National Institute of Standards (NIST) has developed a common format for Usability Testing Reports. The format that they have created is named the “Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports”.
  
  IUSR Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports Version 1.1 October 28, 1999. IUSR, 1999.
  
  
  
• This article provides an introduction to the topic of usability. It also explains briefly how usability can be integrated into the software development process.
  
  Juristo, Natalia, Helmut Windl, and Larry Constantine. “Introducing Usability”, IEEE Software January/February 2001: 20-21.
  
  
  
• A short article on the benefits of Usability Testing.
  
  Kushner, Dorothy. “The Benefits of Usability Testing.” http://www.tds.co.il/usb1.htm (24 Sept 2000)
  
  
  
• Jakob Nielsen's book focuses more on usability issues than usability testing. The book provides a lot of pointers on how to make software more usable. There are a few chapters dedicated to usability testing. However, these chapters discuss more general issues rather than specific issues. For instance, these chapters discuss general types of testing as well as a general list of steps to perform usability testing.
  
  Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering . San Diego: Morgan Kaufmann, 1993.
  
  
  
• Information about the U.S. National Institute of Standards (NIST) project titled “Industry Usability Reporting” (IUSR project) can be found at this web page.
  
  NIST. “Main Body of IUSR Public Site.” 9/21/00. http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr/ (18 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• The U.S. National Institute of Standards (NIST) has written a white paper discussing the goals of the Industry Usability Report Project (IUSR Project).
  
  NIST. “White Paper – July 1999 “ 1999. http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr/documents/WhitePaper.html (31 March 2001).
  
  
  
• This article discusses three different companies approaches to integrating usability testing in their organizations. I found the differences in the three approaches very interesting. The article also mentioned the physical specifications of the usability laboratories that these companies set up.
  
  Radle, Karla & Sarah Young. “Partnering Usability with Development: How Three Organizations Succeeded”, IEEE Software January/February 2001: 38-45.
  
  
  
• Jeffrey Rubin's book explains the intricacies of usability testing from beginning to end. The book is filled with Jeffrey's personal advice which he gathered from his own experiences in the field. The book also contains examples of the testing materials that usability testers use.
  
  Rubin, Jeffrey. Handbook of Usability Testing . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1994.
  
  
  
• A website discussing the current ISO 9241 standards (Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals).
  
  Stewart, Tom. “Standards Status ISO 9241.” 2000. http://www.system-concepts.com/stds/status.html (7 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• Tom Stewart summarizes the ISO 13407 standard on this web page.
  
  Stewart, Tom. “New Developments in Ergonomics Standards.” 2000. http://www.system-concepts.com/stds/ISO13407.html (20 Oct 2000)
  
  
  
• This web page provides a detailed description of the process of heuristic evaluation. It also explained the differences between heuristic evaluation and traditional usability testing.
  
  Unknown. “Heuristic Evaluation: How-To” http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_evaluation.html (23 Feb 2001)
  
  
  
• This web page described what types of usability problems are expected to be found when using heuristic evaluation to evaluate the usability of a product.
  
  Unknown. “Usability Problems Found by Heuristic Evaluation.” http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/usability_problems.html (23 Feb 2001)
  
  
  
• Usability Sciences Corporation is a company that provides usability testing services. This web page explains the procedures they use to perform benchmark testing.
  
  Usability Sciences Corporation. “Benchmark Testing.” 1988. http://www.usabilitysciences.com/services/benchmark.html (23 Feb 2001).
  
  
  
• The following three citations were listed on a web page article titled "Characteristics of Usability Problems Found by Heuristic Evaluation". The author of this article was not listed on the web page. The page discussed in what circumstances heuristic evaluation is helpful. It also described some of the differences between typical usability testing and heuristic evaluation.
  
  Desurvire, H. W., Kondziela, J. M., and Atwood, M. E. 1992. What is gained and lost when using evaluation methods other than empirical testing. In People and Computers VII, edited by Monk, A., Diaper, D., and Harrison, M. D., 89-102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A shorter version of this paper is available in the Digest of Short Talks presented at CHI'92 (Monterey, CA, May 7): 125-126. (citation from: Unknown. “Usability Problems Found by Heuristic Evaluation.” http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/usability_problems.html (23 Feb 2001))
  
  Jeffries, R., Miller, J. R., Wharton, C., and Uyeda, K. M. 1991. User interface evaluation in the real world: A comparison of four techniques. Proceedings ACM CHI'91 Conference (New Orleans, LA, April 28-May 2): 119-124. (citation from: Unknown. “Usability Problems Found by Heuristic Evaluation.” http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/usability_problems.html (23 Feb 2001))
  
  Karat, C., Campbell, R. L., and Fiegel, T. 1992. Comparison of empirical testing and walkthrough methods in user interface evaluation. Proceedings ACM CHI'92 Conference (Monterey, CA, May 3-7): 397-404. (citation from: Unknown. “Usability Problems Found by Heuristic Evaluation.” http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/usability_problems.html (23 Feb 2001))