The Usability Engineering Framework for Product Design and Evaluation

Publisher Summary This chapter begins with the description of the usability engineering and then describes its origins. The chapter then structures a discussion around each of the steps involved in doing usability engineering. Usability engineering is a process for defining, measuring, and thereby improving the usability of products. Usability engineering evolved because of a need to move usability from the realm of personal opinion to an attribute that is quantifiable like other engineering attributes. Practitioners can use the definitions and examples as a basis for their work. The chapter discusses the issues and pitfalls that provide background for establishing, marketing, and refining a usability engineering process in a development organization. Notes for the theorist on the conceptual underpinnings of usability engineering and the interrelationships among usability engineering and other methods like contextual inquiry, inspections, and scenarios are provided throughout the chapter. Finally, the chapter lists the ways in which other design models and methods complement the usability engineering framework.

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