The folks at Texas Tech have been working on this issue, and thinking about how you adjust the flow of a session to test for both usability and learnability.
David Edgell and Keisha McKenzie have an article coming out in UPA's UX Magazine later this summer describing one of their projects at Texas Tech. I'm sure they would be happy to talk to you about their work. Their solution was to have the participant "teach back" key tasks after using the software/site for a while. The two qualities are intertwined. I'd say it's a question of balancing the usability requirements: is it for speed, accuracy, first-time learning, deeper learning, etc. I've written a bit about this as the 5 Es (efficient, effective, engaing, error-tolerant, easy to learn). The point is that "usability" is not a single, monolithic quality, but must be defined for the "specific users" and "specific contexts". This point is somewhat hidden in the ISO 9241 definition. I've often wondered whether some of the debates about what "usability" means really stem from conversations that cross contexts. Surely usability for a (for example) shopping site is different than for a (for example) equipment control panel, even though it may be composed of similar attributes in different proportions. There are some good techniques to help identify priorities, such as a "game" in which the team is asked to spend $100 in play money on the different Es. The end result is interesting, but the debate and discussion is often very helpful in clarifying objectives. More here: http://www.wqusability.com/articles/getting-started.html On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Kevin Silver <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > After a long hiatus I'm back designing in the realm of enterprise software > and I have been shifting my thinking back to the land of the intermediate > user. Subsequently I've been thinking a lot about designing and usability > testing for learnability–how learnable is the application? It seems to me > that there is a big difference between testing a check-out flow and a > complex interface. I have some broad assumptions in mind, but I'm sure there > are many of you who have been through this before. > > So, my questions are: > > How do you test for learnability? > > Is there a difference between "learnability testing" and usability testing? > If so, what are they? > > And maybe a pertinent question is how do you design for learnability? > > Hopefully these are good friday and pre-holiday weekend questions. > > Thanks, > > Kevin > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Whitney Quesenbery www.wqusability.com Storytelling for User Experience Design www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/storytelling ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
