Papers/Notes: Usability Methods and New Domains

Thursday, April 15
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

API Usability Peer Reviews: A Method for Evaluating the Usability of Application Programming Interfaces
Umer Farooq, Microsoft, USA
Leon Welicki, Microsoft, Canada
Dieter Zirkler, Microsoft, USA

We describe a new usability inspection method to evaluate APIs. Our method is significantly more efficient (16x) than standard API usability tests in the lab.

Understanding Usability Practices in Complex Domains
Parmit K. Chilana, University of Washington (UW), USA
Jacob O. Wobbrock, University of Washington (UW), USA
Andrew J. Ko, University of Washington (UW), USA

Presents empirical data from interviews with usability professionals on the challenges of working in complex domains and the coping strategies used. Discusses implications of the results for usability training.

Average Task Times in Usability Tests: What to Report?
Jeff Sauro, Oracle, Measuring Usability LLC, USA
James Lewis, IBM, USA

Monte carlo simulations from 61 usability tasks shows the geometric mean provides a more accurate estimate of the average task-time than the median and mean in small sample (n<25) tests.

Concept Mapping in Agile Usability: A Case Study
Jeremy T. Barksdale, Virginia Tech, USA
Scott McCrickard, Virginia Tech, USA

This study presents a collaborative concept mapping approach that allows for greater application of HCI methods and more usable software through the removal of project team barriers.

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