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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Usability certification - tips & tricks
From:       Laurie Gray <lgray () humancentrictech ! com>
Date:       2002-07-09 21:51:38
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Following bits and pieces of the usability thread via digest - forgive if I've 
missed something-

Had to jump in on this one. The checklist that you all are describing is described 
in the industry as a heuristic evaluation. There are commonly accepted features or 
characteristics that you can use to rate whether or not your application meets 
certain criteria. While many are based on Nielsen's "list of 10", they are adapted 
to meet the specifics of the application at hand. Search useit.com for "Heuristic 
evaluation" - you'll get plenty of responses. This is a quick and easy assessment 
of something you can do, but I should caution that the developer should NOT be the 
one to complete the heuristic. Get someone else to do it for the same reasons that 
you might have someone else proofread a document - you are too involved to be 
objective! Gerry Gaffney in Australia has also produced a nice usability toolkit. I 
have used his things, and with his permission, modified them for my own particular 
use. He's at http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/toolkit.html

For quick prototyping, consider using a nifty little tool called denim. 
http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/projects/denim/ This freeware, which runs on linux, 
allows you to create rough pages and then export them in HTML. It's built for web 
prototyping, but I have also used it for cell phone prototyping as well. I have 
built prototypes, exported into HTML, posted on a server, and then asked users to 
evaluate them.

Hope this helps-

Laurie


-----
Laurie Gray
Senior Usability Specialist
HumanCentric Technologies, Inc.
http://www.humancentrictech.com
(919) 481-0565
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