Cost Justifying Usability

You just know that an improvement of the user interface will reap rewards, but how do you justify the expense and the labor and the time—guarantee a robust ROI!—ahead of time? How do you decide how much of an investment should be funded? And what is the best way to sell usability to others? In this completely revised and new edition of Cost-Justifying Usability, Randolph G. Bias (University of Texas at Austin, with 25 years’ experience as a usability practitioner and manager) and Deborah J. Mayhew (internationally recognized usability consultant and author of two other seminal books including The Usability Engineering Lifecycle) tackle these and many other problems. It has been updated to cover cost-justifying usability for Web sites and intranets, for the complex applications we have today, and for a host of products—offering techniques, examples, and cases that are unavailable elsewhere. No matter what type of product you build, whether or not you are a cost-benefit expert or a born salesperson, this book has the tools that will enable you to cost-justify the appropriate usability investment. Includes contributions by a host of experts involved in this work, including Aaron Marcus, Janice Rohn, Chauncey Wilson, Nigel Bevan, Dennis Wixon, Clare-Marie Karat, Susan Dray, Charles Mauro, and many others Includes actionable ideas for every phase of the software development process Includes case studies from inside a variety of companies Includes ideas from "the other side of the table," software executives who hold the purse strings, who offer thoughts on which proposals for usability support they've funded, and which ones they've declined

Advice from the experts on how to justify time and money spent on usability!

This text is about achieving usability in product user interface design through a process called Usability Engineering. The techniques presented include not only UI requirements analysis, but also organizational and managerial strategies.

Written by the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia, this book is an excellent guide to the methods of usability engineering. The book provides the tools needed to avoid usability surprises and improve product quality. Step-by-step information on which method to use at various stages during the development lifecycle are included, along with detailed information on how to run a usability test and the unique issues relating to international usability. * Emphasizes cost-effective methods that developers can implement immediately * Instructs readers about which methods to use when, throughout the development lifecycle, which ultimately helps in cost-benefit analysis. * Shows readers how to avoid the four most frequently listed reasons for delay in software projects. * Includes detailed information on how to run a usability test. * Covers unique issues of international usability. * Features an extensive bibliography allowing readers to find additional information. * Written by an internationally renowned expert in the field and the author of the best-selling HyperText & HyperMedia.

This completely revised edition, of the Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, of which 80% of the content is new, reflects the developments in the field since the publication of the first edition in 1988. The handbook is concerned with principles for design of the Human-Computer Interface, and has both academic and practical purposes. It is intended to summarize the research and provide recommendations for how the information can be used by designers of computer systems. The volume may also be used as a reference for teaching and research. Professionals who are involved in design of HCI will find this volume indispensable, including: computer scientists, cognitive scientists, experimental psychologists, human factors professionals, interface designers, systems engineers, managers and executives working with systems development. Much of the information in the handbook may also be generalized to apply to areas outside the traditional field of HCI.

Today, more and more Web sites are providing content in multiple languages for targeted countries, and more and more products are being designed for cultural differences in mind. However, the concept of cross-cultural design has not yet become a strong force in the practitioners' and educators' agenda. This book looks at techniques, software, tools

Usability Testing Essentials provides readers with the tools and techniques needed to begin usability testing or to advance their knowledge in this area. The book begins by presenting the essentials of usability testing, which include focusing on the user and not the product; knowing when to conduct small or large studies; and thinking of usability as hill climbing. It then reviews testing options and places usability testing into the context of a user-centered design (UCD). It goes on to discuss the planning, preparation, and implementation of a usability test. The remaining chapters cover the analysis and reporting of usability test findings, and the unique aspects of international usability testing. This book will be useful to anyone else involved in the development or support of any type of product, such as software or web developers, engineers, interaction designers, information architects, technical communicators, visual or graphic designers, trainers, user-assistance specialists, and instructional technologists. Provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to usability testing, a crucial part of every product’s development The fully updated four-color edition now features important usability issues such as international testing, persona creation, remote testing, and accessibility Follow-up to Usability Testing and Research (9780205315192, Longman, 2001), winner of the highest-level award from the Society for Technical Communication

Measuring the User Experience was the first book that focused on how to quantify the user experience. Now in the second edition, the authors include new material on how recent technologies have made it easier and more effective to collect a broader range of data about the user experience. As more UX and web professionals need to justify their design decisions with solid, reliable data, Measuring the User Experience provides the quantitative analysis training that these professionals need. The second edition presents new metrics such as emotional engagement, personas, keystroke analysis, and net promoter score. It also examines how new technologies coming from neuro-marketing and online market research can refine user experience measurement, helping usability and user experience practitioners make business cases to stakeholders. The book also contains new research and updated examples, including tips on writing online survey questions, six new case studies, and examples using the most recent version of Excel. Learn which metrics to select for every case, including behavioral, physiological, emotional, aesthetic, gestural, verbal, and physical, as well as more specialized metrics such as eye-tracking and clickstream data Find a vendor-neutral examination of how to measure the user experience with web sites, digital products, and virtually any other type of product or system Discover in-depth global case studies showing how organizations have successfully used metrics and the information they revealed Companion site, www.measuringux.com, includes articles, tools, spreadsheets, presentations, and other resources to help you effectively measure the user experience