Development of quantitative usability evaluation method

Abstract

A variety of evaluation methods are practiced in order to make more appealing and improve the usability of computer systems. The authors have developed a quantitative usability evaluation method that uses a checklist that outlines an evaluation procedure and clarifies judging standards. This paper describes this quantitative usability evaluation method that is not influenced by an evaluator's subjective impression. Moreover, such clear and precise definitions makes checklist-based evaluations more repeatable (thus more reliable) and less affected by differences among evaluators. The effectiveness of our checklist has been evaluated by the experiments with novice and experienced evaluators. This article reports the method and results of the experiments. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.