Use Case Evaluation (UCE): A Method for Early Usability Evaluation in Software Development

It is often argued that usability problems should be identified as early as possible during software development, but many usability evaluation methods do not fit well in early development activities. We propose a method for usability evaluation of use cases, a widely used representation of design ideas produced early in software development processes. The method proceeds by systematic inspection of use cases with reference to a set of guidelines for usable design. To validate the method, four evaluators inspected a set of use cases for a health care application. The usability problems predicted by the evaluators were compared to the result of a conventional think-aloud test. About one fourth of the problems were identified by both think-aloud testing and use case inspection; about half of the predicted problems not found by think-aloud testing were assessed as providing useful input to early development. Qualitative data on the evaluators' experience using the method are also presented. On this background, we argue that use case inspection has a promising potential and discuss its limitations.

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