LSC 555 INFORMATION SYSTEMS Webliography:
Usability Testing
by
Kim Klarman
|Human-Computer Interaction | Usability Design Principles | Usability Evaluation Methods |
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- HCI Bibliography
This website provides lists of recommended readings, conference reports, and links to relevant websites. Very good starting point for understanding the issues and basics of HCI and usability. This site can be viewed in several languages. You might find the arrangement difficult to understand until you explore the site.
- Human-Computer Interaction Research Network
Visit the "A to Z" section for a comprehensive list of articles on human-computer interaction topics. You can find a good breakdown of information on the field. Many of the articles listed are not full-text.
- Human-Computer Interaction
This journal site is written by an IBM employee who works in the area of human-computer interaction and focuses on "user science and system design". The articles available are thoughtful and written in an easy-to-understand manner. Unfortunately, most articles are accessable only to those with a subscription which runs $60 annually for an individual.
- Usability News
This email newsletter from England is free and contains articles, lists of events, conference information and news items of interest to those working in the field. Simple, non-flashy design is attractive and brings news of what is happening in European countries in this field. Information and articles are very limited in scope.
- University of Toronto's Dynamic Graphics Project
Information on past and present projects of this Canadian team can be found here. Projects tend more to the capturing of human body movements to make them appear realistic, but some usability studies and articles are available. Most of the articles tend to be complex and very scientific.
- London's Centre for HDI Design
If you follow the research links on this page, you can find presentations of current projects at the City University of London. Strong emphasis on usability of systems for blind and hearing-impaired individuals. Excellent links that are easy to follow, but could provide links to past articles written by faculty.
- Interaction Design at the University of Melbourne
This Australian university site shows projects and specific areas of interest of this group that studies users and emerging technology. Following the faculty links, you can find interesting research papers and projects they have been conducted over the past few years. The site, however, doesn't offer much detail on current projects.
- University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Information on current projects at the University of Maryland and a good list of articles published by the University. Site is easy to navigate. Articles are slow to download.
- Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon's site is rich with information on current research projects, including Alice which will help those unfamiliar with programming to develop their own 3D virtual world. This site is clearly developed with a mission statement and clear links. As this is an academic site, there is a lot of space devoted to resumes of faculty and staff and academic programs.
- Usability Design Principles
- Heuristic Evaluation
Good basic beginning site for someone to find out about heuristic evaluation. Several links to Jakob Nielson's writings on heuristics. (He is the cofounder of the heuristic approach.) Doesn't provide analysis of this evaluation method.
- Usability Studies from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design
Usability evaluation articles and design ideas can be found in the research section of this site. Easy to navigate through the site. Unfortunately, the information is limited.
- IBM's Easy Use
IBM's website has ample information on determining user satisfaction for your website. Information covers design ideas, creating value for your users and user engineering. IBM has created a simple, informative and attractive site with no obvious flaws.
- User Design
This site will help in the design process of a website. This gives ideas on color backgrounds, text issues, controls and other layout features. Interesting start to understanding what works on websites, but some of the sections don't offer enough detail.
- Web Style Guide
The Web Style Guide is intended for web page developers around the world. This eight chapter guide is easy to navigate, contains few distracting graphics and has an attractive layout. To jump from one chapter to another requires backtracking, but besides that minor flaw, it is easy to understand and helpful.
- Conference on Universal Usability, 2000
The Conference was held in 2000 and focused on three issues - technology differences, user diversity and differences in user knowledge bases. This is an interesting site that highlights some of the different design issues affecting users around the world. Unfortunately, the conference occurred in 2000 and site was last updated in 2001.
- Usability Evaluation Methods
- Molich Interview
This site carries an interview of Rolf Molich, coinventor of Heuristic Inspection and the Comparative Usability Evaluation approaches. The interviewer asks Molich about problems with the heuristic approach and reasons for CUE studies and findings. The site carries a lot of detailed information about the conference.
- Heuristic Evaluation of a WWW Prototype
This evaluation was conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and was conducted on a website they were designing. Information covers the important aspects and findings of their evaluation and gives good details of their study. Simple design is attractive, but the long article requires scrolling down to take in all information.
- Dialog Design Sample Test Reports
Provides sample reports for usability testing including international testing approaches, results from CUE project as well as information on Dialog Design Services. Dialog Design offers a look at the Tower Records' website - this is an unapproved study of the site. Portions of the site are not written in English and don't appear to be translated.
- University of California at San Diego (UCSD) - Usability Testing
This website documents UCSD's usability testing concerns, studies and results. The university consolidated all of their 14 branch websites onto one site and this link discusses the studies conducted for that purpose. Great site to view an actual test study. Design is simple and easy to navigate and clearly written. There were no evident flaws.
- Usability News email newsletter
The Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University publishes this free email newsletter. Interesting articles can be found on website design, alternative input devices, special interest articles and educational articles. One highlight is an easy search tool to find articles in back issues. Uncluttered design offers text in 3 colors with minimal graphics. This site is "textbook" design, but almost so bland that it is a bit boring.
- University of Washington's Usability Lab
This is the site for the University of Washington's usability lab that is used to conduct studies by individuals, class groups or business clients. Site has an attractive easy to use design. Unfortunately, when I tried to access information, the site froze every time and couldn't access project information.
- Equipment needed for a usability lab
This is the site of the University of Indiana's HCI Usability Lab. This is a great site to visit if you want to know what goes into setting up a lab - it describes all of the equipment the University purchased for the lab. The site would be improved if they provided information on projects conducted at the lab.
- Usability.gov
This site is under the auspices of the National Cancer Institute and provides detailed information on usability issues - costs, labs, design and development concerns, guidelines, references and more. Excellent overall source of information that has been compiled by a government agency. Clear links bring you to relevant information. Design is elegant and easy to use.
- Moving Webword
This site is a compilation of articles about usability and the web. Contains links to full text of interesting collection of articles and book reviews. Articles go back to 1998, but no entries have been added since April, 2003 article on evaulation methods.
- User Interface Engineerings
UIE provides a good selection of articles on usability testing. Articles discuss value testing, labs, eye-tracking and other issues of interest. There is a limited number of articles on a narrow range of interest to a researcher, but worth reading.
- Usable Web
This site has links to 1,056 sites on web usability. Information on methods, design, events, strategies, issues and more are covered in detail. Web site layout could be arranged in a clearer manner the display of information more attractive and easy to read. Web site last updated when information was moved to a new server in June, 2003 - editor claims it will no longer be updated which is a shame.
- New Architect Newsletter
This is a newsletter comprised of interesting articles published for today's technology leaders. Site has access to articles of interest to usability researchers. Much of the information covers a broader spectrum than simply usability testing.
- Top 20 Statistics for Usability
Put together by an Australian group, this site provides financial reasons for justifying usability studies and a user focus to design. Business can peruse this list to understand value added by usability studies. The site is a very simple WordPad document with no graphics, but it does contain a few links.
- Usability Test of the MIT Libraries Website
The goal of this study conducted in 1999 was to identify standards for measuring success of future MIT websites and to determine problems with the existing site. The site covers details about the evaluation methods and results. No details regarding changes made and feedback regarding evaluation methods.
- Stanford's Web Credibility Research Site
This interesting page reveals information concerning the factors that make a site credible to a user. This is a different approach than other sites that consider only usability and the links are excellent. It would have made this better if they had related the results of their work to usability studies.
Created by Kim Klarman.
© Kim Klarman 2004