Everything about Usability Engineering totally explained
Usability engineering is a field that's concerned generally with
human-computer interaction and specifically with designing human-computer interfaces that are
easy to use. The largest subsets of Usability Engineers work to improve usability of
software graphical user interfaces (GUIs), web-based user interfaces, and
voice user interfaces (VUIs).
Several broad disciplines including
Psychology,
Human Factors and
Cognitive Science subsume usability engineering, but the theoretical foundations of the field come from more specific domains: human perception and action; human cognition; behavioral research methodologies; and, to a lesser extent, quantitative and statistical analysis techniques.
When usability engineering began to emerge as a distinct area of professional practice in the mid- to late 1980s, many usability engineers had a background in
Computer Science or in a sub-field of
Psychology such as
Perception,
Cognition or
Human Factors. Today, these academic areas still serve as springboards for the professional practitioner of usability engineering, but Cognitive Science departments and academic programs in Human-Computer Interaction now also produce their share of practitioners in the field.
The term
usability engineering (in contrast to
interaction design and
user experience design) implies more of a focus on usability than it does on design, though Usability Engineers may still engage in design to some extent, particularly design of wire-frames or other prototypes. Usability Engineers conduct usability evaluations of existing or proposed interfaces and their findings are fed back to the Designer for use in design or redesign. Common usability evaluation methods include interviews,
focus groups, questionnaires,
usability testing,
cognitive walkthroughs,
heuristic evaluations,
cognitive task analysis and
contextual inquiry.
Usability engineers often work to shape an interface such that it adheres to accepted operational definitions of
user requirements. Extending as far as
International Organisation for Standardisation-approved definitions (see for example, IS0 9241 part 11)
usability is considered a context-dependent agreement of the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specific users should be able to perform tasks. Advocates of this approach engage in task analysis, then
prototype interface design, and
usability testing on those designs. On the basis of such tests, the technology is (ideally) re-designed or (occasionally) the operational targets for user performance are revised. [Dillon,2000].
Two well-known practitioners in the field are
Donald Norman and
Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen has written a book on the subject, aptly titled
Usability Engineering, which was published in 1994.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Usability Engineering'.
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