Usability! What's this? (Part -2)

Nowadays, there are various product / applications in the market which makes the market competitive in various terms, including "usability" of the product. This ever-increasing competitiveness makes markets saturated & the need for best-of-the-breed products in terms of usability are required to developed.

These products needs to be more of "user-centered" than being "technology-oriented". An 'Usability' expert analyzes the interaction between the end user and the application or product developed. After carefully observing them, an "Usability expert" may find the functional or design flaws in the process by which the product or application is developed. Being an Usability person, one has to always keep in mind that the product has been designed / developed by keeping the end user in mind.

Also, 'usability testing' and 'usability engineering' are both different things. "Usability Testing" measures the ease of use of a given software / application or product. But, "Usability Engineering (UE)" is a scientific way of research & develop the processes which ensures the product / application developed is compliant to most usability parameters.

In the coming article, I will post some more stuff on "Usability".

Usability! What's this? (Part -1)

How do we say that "this" particular thing is very "easy to use"? This ease of use can be defined loosely as the "usability" of that particular thing, which can a be a tool or any other human-made object which helps us in achieving a goal.

Especially in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and CS (Computer Science), this term "Usability" generally refers to the "ease of use, clarity & elegance" of the particular software or website developed. In non-IT aspects, it can be even the efficient design of any mechanical objects such as door handle or any tool that we use in our home.

ISO standard:

The document ISO 9126 (1991) Software Engineering Product Quality, issued by the International Organization for Standardization, defines usability as:
"A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed for use, and on the individual assessment of such use, by a stated or implied set of users."

The document ISO 9241-11 (1998) Guidance on Usability, also issued by the International Organization for Standardization, defines usability as:
"The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. "

[ ISO Standard Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability#ISO_standard ]

We will learn more about usability in the 2nd part of this article.