Strategies for Evaluating Software Usability

This paper presents a usage analysis and taxonomy of methods which are used to evaluate the usability of computer systems. To accommodate the analysis and taxonomy, a matrix of strategies which can be used for effective usability evaluation is presented. Such an analysis, taxonomy and strategies support human-computer interaction (HCI) professionals who have the responsibility for ensuring computer system usability. The strategies outlined are named Virtual Engineering, Soft Modelling, Hard Review and Real World. This paper also uses a composite set of existing popular generic evaluation methods which can be used as part of these strategies. The methods used are observation, questionnaire, interview, empirical methods, user groups, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic methods, review methods and model methods. The paper continues by presenting a Usage Analysis Table of these methods and concludes by grouping them into a Taxonomy of Usability Evaluation Methods. A key emphasis of this paper is the appropriateness of individual methods to lifecycle timing.