I note with some concern that it appears that 5 of 6 tutorials
from last year were cancelled, I assume due to lack of enrollment.
I believe the practical aspects of this tutorial would appeal
to a broad base of conference attendees.
Gary Perlman
OCLC Online Computer Library Center
perlman@oclc.org
http://www.acm.org/~perlman/
This full day introductory tutorial gives participants
enough information to return to their work and evaluate
the usability of all parts of software systems, including
documentation.
The tutorial provides a general introduction to usability,
including goals, costs, and benefits, and provides
a step-by-step framework for evaluating usability.
Most of the tutorial is devoted to practical methods
that can be applied with little training or equipment.
The methods include:
- Inspection methods (e.g., heuristic evaluation, standards)
- Observing users and video (e.g., usability labs on a budget)
- Questionnaires (e.g., user satisfaction surveys)
- Program instrumentation (e.g., web log analysis)
More details are available at:
http://www.acm.org/~perlman/chiteval.html
History
This tutorial has been presented at three different conferences
(OZCHI, ACM Hypertext, ACM SIGCHI, Human Factors and Ergonomics)
a total of 7 times, with uniformly high evaluations
(for four offerings, it was among the top five of about
30 tutorials offered at CHI conferences).
A reference page on the tutorial is available at:
http://www.acm.org/~perlman/chiteval.html
Special Features for SIGDOC
- I will explain and reinforce how usability evaluation
methods can be used to convince people that some problems
can not be fixed in the documentation.
- The PowerPoint presentation would be adapted to use
documentation examples from real online systems
(e.g., I would use Web log analysis of help system access)
- Inspection methods could, on request, include accessibility evaluation
(e.g., Section 508, WAI)
- Some coverage could be included on remote usability evaluation)
(e.g., via NetMeeting)
- Web versions of all materials are available to participants
and include royalty-free forms:
and reference materials: