Formal interactive systems analysis and usability inspection methods: Two incompatible worlds?

Abstract

We present our view on how a formal technique for the analysis of interactive systems can be used to support ‘discount’ usability inspection methods. As a demonstration, we present a snapshot of our work on supporting heuristic evaluation and on the analysis of selected usability properties. Our method focuses on the exhaustive analysis of functional properties. We claim that the benefits gained by a formal approach like the one presented here justify its extra costs. Moreover, we believe these costs can be kept comparably low by making the analysis technique flexible enough to support a number of other (informal) analysis techniques throughout the different stages of the design process.