Software Usability - Essay Example

Software Usability Submitted to, Submitted By, of the Submitted on, [October 31st, Case Expectations: Whatdo you believe are the appropriate criteria for assessing usability?  Who should make such judgments?  How should disagreements about usability be resolved? Usability is the key of matters in the current times. The literal meaning of the term usability cannot mere relate to the vast meanings of it in which usability can be addressed. Usability is often used interchangeably with a number of terminologies as stated in the following statements that have been taken from the User Experience White Paper (2011):“The term user experience is often used as a synonym for usability, user interface, interaction experience, interaction design, customer experience, web site appeal, emotion, ‘wow effect’, general experience, or as an umbrella term incorporating all or many of these concepts.

” (User Experience White Paper, 2011)Thus, it can certainly be said that the extent to which a computer system is user centered and is designed in accordance with the requirements of the stakeholders associated with the system is referred to as usability. Since the sole purpose of the creation and integration of computer embedded systems is to ease the conduction of processing for man their effectiveness is highly dependent on their usability. It is essential for the successful execution of business processes that the designs of the information systems embedded within them are user centered and targeted towards the achievement of specific goals with effectiveness.

Usability is judged at the very initiation when the user interacts with the user interface of software. The readability of the user interface and the accessibility that it provides are both key factors that can be considered in order to assess the usability of that particular system.APPROPRITE CRITEREA for usability is embedded within computer systems during their design phase. It can be summarized as follows: can be summarize as follows:Specific User tasks to be highlighted. Usability precision without the implementation of this task at the design phase is impossible.

Every computer system module needs to be designed specific to its users’ needs. The simply and clearly chalked out the requirements of the users are, the easier and more efficiently implemented is the usability of the system.Goals to be Determined-Evaluate what is the final required end result. In accordance with the data collected, the tasks required to reach the goal are embedded within the software design of the computer system.User profile should be determined. Representatives similar to the target market should be approached.

The system should be accessed by them and their response should be integrated into the final outcome of the software.Conduct preliminary trial sessions. The representatives who are made to access the system before its finalization are provided with specific rooms in which they are monitored by audio/visual recording or eye tracking equipment. Since the physical response of users is part of the usability assessment the data collected is of immense importance. Data input from the users should be evaluated.

Respect should be given to the areas of the system that left the users unsatisfied and distressed. Close attention should be paid to areas where the users were not satisfied.DISAGREEMENTS about usability should be resolved with the consensus of opinion. The hiring of external agents that would be third party to your organization might be helpful in such a case. The third party entrepreneur is unbiased and assesses the optimized usability requirements for software. REFERENCES:Neilsen, J., Coyne, K.

, Tahir, M. (February 6 2001). Make it Usable. PC Mag.com. Retrieved from: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,33821,00.asp#fbid=j0tD00dVZbcFebruary 11, 2011. User Experience White Paper. Demarcating User Experience. Retrieved from: http://www.allaboutux.org/files/UX-WhitePaper.pdf