Anticipation of Usability Problems by Practitioners

Abstract

In studying anticipation of usability problems a variety of approaches may be adopted. Some are characterised by experimental control, others leave room for exploration. This paper discusses consequences of adopting a particular approach in an empirical study carried out at TU Delft. Results from our approach are presented together with discussion of possible consequences of a more experimentally controlled approach. In our study twenty practitioners, such as designers and ergonomists, identified potential usability problems on the basis of design models and tapes of users' trials with these design models. Large inter-individual differences emerged, mainly because the practitioners adopted a variety of procedures and drew from different sources of knowledge and experience. The adopted procedures were studied to locate sources for inter-individual differences, in order to improve methods of anticipation.