On Fri, 3 Feb 2006, Kyle Brooks wrote: > Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:16:40 -0500 > From: Kyle Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Usability] What is usability? > > Hi all. > > So what is it?
Usability is whatever Calum Benson says it is! ;) Usability can be describe in many different ways, Calum described it two different ways in an interview with Linux Weekly News (LWN) http://lwn.net/2001/0614/a/usability-calum.php3 Q3. What is usability - not usability testing, but the term "usability" itself? Define it for us. CB: Well, the official ISO definition is dry but accurate: "a measure of the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve specified goals in a particular environment with that interface". A less formal definition would be that a usable product is easy to learn and remember how to use, and helps you do your job quickly and enjoyably without making mistakes. Of course, each of those factors is more or less important depending on the product and the environment in which it will be used-- with an air traffic control system, for example, it's less important to be fun to use or easy to learn, and more important that it prevents you from making mistakes. I (Alan) would add Gnome places emphasis on reaching a wide audience and this necessitates making things easy to learn and discover with as little training as possible. Gnome would have very different usability requiremtns compared to an expert systems like air traffic control where users would expect to be properly trained and where the system usability would be optimised for accuracy and efficiency. Game design oddly enough requires usability too, good gameplay is the difference between just making something difficult and making it challenging but still fun. Sincerely Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/ _______________________________________________ Usability mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability
