Collecting Detailed User Evaluations of Software Interfaces

This paper describes the development and application of a methodlogy used to build an instrument for collecting detailed user evaluations. Although the methodology is general, the instrument developed was specifically intended for collecting user evaluations pertaining to text editors. The methodolody incorporated user suggestions and resulted in a matrix of 16 text editing functions and 17 adjective scales. The application of this matrix to an existing editor revealed that a consistent set of scales were appropriate for evaluating all 16 editing functions.