The importance of rigor in usability studies

Abstract

Well-designed and conducted usability efforts - "big U Usability including the entire user-centered design process, from requirements gathering through prototype creation and evaluation, through system usability testing, through delivery/cut-live, and to field testing and beyond, and even fundamental usability research - are vital to the creation of human-information systems that actual people can use to carry out their intended tasks. Done poorly, such efforts can be worse than nothing. We have crafted this conference session, "Usability Studies: Rigor or Rigor Mortis?," to highlight good examples of rigor applied to usability studies, and to illustrate how important a rigorous approach is. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.