Republic of the Philippines

TARLAC STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Tarlac City

Usability: Definitions and concepts

ARELLANO, MA. CARINE L.

IE- 5D

MR.DON HERO ALEGA

INSTRUCTOR
INTRODUCTION:
During the recent years’ human society evolved from the “industrial society age”

and transitioned into the “knowledge society age”. This means that knowledge media

support migrated from “pen and paper” to computer-based Information Systems (IS).

This evolution introduced some technological, organizational, and methodological

changes affecting the demand, work-load and stress over the workers, many times in a

negative way. Due to this fact Ergonomics has assumed an increasing importance, as a

science/technology that deals with the problem of adapting the work to the man, namely

in terms of Usability.

WHAT IS USABILITY?

Usability is then a key issue on ergonomic interventions regarding IS.

Usability is a quality or characteristic of a product that denotes how easy this

product is to learn and to use; but it is also an ergonomic approach, and a group of

principles and techniques aimed at designing usable and accessible products, based on

user-centered design.

According to ISO 9241, part 11, Usability is defined as the effectiveness,

efficiency and satisfaction with which specific users achieve goals in particular

environments. It applies equally to both hardware and software design.

 The definitions of the three key terms are:

- Effectiveness is the accuracy and completeness with which specific users

achieve their own goals with the system

- Efficiency is the resources expended in relation to the accuracy and

completeness of goals achieved; and

- Satisfaction is the comfort and acceptability of the system to the users and other

people affected by its use.

The usability of products can be improved by incorporating features and

attributes known to benefit the users in a particular context of use. In order to

determine the level of usability achieved, it is necessary to measure the

performance and satisfaction of users working with a product.

Measurement of usability is particularly important in view of the

complexity of the interactions between the user, the goals, the task characteristics

and in different contexts.

The approach adopted in ISO 9241-11 has benefits which

include:

-The framework can be used to identify the aspects of usability and the components of

the context of use to be taken into account when specifying, designing or evaluating the

usability of a product.
-The performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and satisfaction of the users can be used

to measure the extent to which a product is usable in a particular context.

-Measures of the performance and satisfaction of the users can provide a basis for the

comparison of the relative usability of products with different technical characteristics

which are used in the same context.

-The usability planned for a product can be defined, documented and verified.

WHEN DEVELOPING A PRODUCT ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING:

 Is my project quick and easy to learn?

 Is my project efficient to use?

 Does my project allow for rapid recovery of error?

 Is my project easy to remember?

MUST NEED TO KNOW ABOUT USABILITY:

 Focus on the user

 Identify their needs and wants

 Perform usability testing

 Make modification base on their feedback