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))
Contact Information:
Norene Malaney
Num1MMFan@yahoo.com