Approaches on User eXperience Assessment: User Tests, Communicability and Psychometrics

Abstract

Usability is a basic attribute in software quality. Its complex and evolving nature is hard to describe in a unique definition. Usability refers to ease of use and the way users can perform their tasks. User eXperience (UX) goes beyond the three generally accepted usability’s dimensions: effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. UX covers all aspects of someone’s interaction with a product, application, system and/or service including psychological ones. Psychometrics as a psychological assessment tool could be helpful in UX studies as a complement to usability evaluation methods. Communicability is a distinctive quality of interactive systems that effectively and efficiently communicate to the users the design intent and interactive principles. The paper explores how user testing (co-discovery), communicability evaluation, query techniques, and psychometrics (motivation scale) may complement each other when assessing UX. Empirical evidences are analyzed, using the World Digital Library (www.wdl.org) as a case study.