Introduction Usability is critical in designing forms and reports. It has severa

Question

Introduction

Usability is critical in designing forms and reports. It has
several success factors, such as consistency, efficiency, ease, format, and
flexibility, to ensure a user-friendly, effective, and productive interaction
with users. Usability success factors must take into consideration the
following characteristics: user, task, system, and environment (social and
physical issues).

Task

Observe forms or reports you have seen or used online.

Questions

Define usabilityand its five success factors. Describe any two forms or reports you have seen
or used online, in which one scored high on usability, while the other ranked low
on usability. Why did you rank one high and the other low in terms of usability?
What improvements would you suggest in terms of usability and design to the inferior
form or report?

Explanation / Answer

What is usability?

Usability means making products and systems easier to use, and matching them more closely to user needs and requirements.

The international standard, ISO 9241-11, provides guidance on usability and defines it 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.

Usability is about:

….which are affected by:

Usability should not be confused with 'functionality', however, as this is purely concerned with the functions and features of the product and has no bearing on whether users are able to use them or not. Increased functionality does not mean improved usability!

HIGH USABILITY LOW USABILITY

It's part of the responsibility of user experience professionals to help developers make decisions about what to fix.

Accounting for problem frequency and severity are two critical ingredients when communicating the importance of usability problems

Problem Frequency

Measuring the frequency of a problem is generally straightforward. Take the number of users that encounter a problem divided by the total number of users. For example, if 1 out of 5 users encounter a problem, the problem frequency is .20, or 20%.

Problem Severity

Rating the severity of a problem is less objective than finding the problem frequency. There are a number of ways to assign severity ratings. I've selected a few of the more popular approaches described in the literature, and I'll contrast those with the method we use at Measuring Usability.

While there are differences in approaches, in general each method proposes a similar structure: a set of ordered categories reflecting the impact the problem has on the user, from minor to major.  

following four-step scale a few decades ago:

0 = I don't agree that this is a usability problem at all
1 = Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project
2 = Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority
3 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority
4 = Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released

:

4: Unusable: The user is not able to or will not want to use a particular part of the product because of the way that the product has been designed and implemented.
3: Severe: The user will probably use or attempt to use the product here, but will be severely limited in his or her ability to do so.
2: Moderate: The user will be able to use the product in most cases, but will have to undertake some moderate effort in getting around the problem.
1: Irritant: The problem occurs only intermittently, can be circumvented easily, or is dependent on a standard that is outside the product's boundaries. Could also be a cosmetic problem.

Level 1: Prevents Task Completion
Level 2: Creates significant delay and frustration
Level 3: Problems have a minor effect on usability
Level 4: Subtle and possible enhancements/suggestions

Level 1: Catastrophic error causing irrevocable loss of data or damage to the hardware or software. The problem could result in large-scale failures that prevent many people from doing their work. Performance is so bad that the system cannot accomplish business goals.
Level 2: Severe problem, causing possible loss of data. User has no workaround to the problem. Performance is so poor that the system is universally regarded as 'pitiful'.
Level 3: Moderate problem causing no permanent loss of data, but wasted time. There is a workaround to the problem. Internal inconsistencies result in increased learning or error rates. An important function or feature does not work as expected.
Level 4: Minor but irritating problem. Generally, it causes loss of data, but the problem slows users down slightly. There are minimal violations of guidelines that affect appearance or perception, and mistakes that are recoverable.
Level 5: Minimal error. The problem is rare and causes no data loss or major loss of time. Minor cosmetic or consistency issue.

The Wilson and Dumas & Redish scales have the more severe problem with lower numbers. That is because in the early days of computing, severe bugs were called "level 1 bugs" and those had to be fixed before product release (Dumas, Personal Communication 2013). In this scale, the problems are defined in terms of data loss rather than their impact on users' performance or emotional state.

Best Practices for Improving Usability

1. Statefulness

A common issue I’ve found in applications is the lack of some message telling me that my action is still in the process of executing. Without this, it is difficult to know if the system is actually doing anything after I press a button or if there was an error.

Let users know where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going. Breadcrumbs, titles of pages, and meaningful link titles (in that order) are a great way to do this.

Ask yourself these questions when assessing the statefulness of your application:
• What does my application look like when a process is loading?
• Can users easily see interruptions or updates to the application while they use it?
• How do users know their requests were successful?

2. Error Catching

I’ve seen a lot of startups ignore good error catching and it’s understandable why. When you’re building an application, it’s natural to be very focused on it working as perfectly as possible. Yet, we need to humbly anticipate that both our applications and our users will fail to interface with one another properly

• What does an error (user or system) in your application look like?
• If the error was caused by the user, does the message give the user an easy way to correct it?
• If the error is caused by the system, is this clearly conveyed to the user?
• Does the application avoid losing the user’s state (e.g. entered data) after an error?

I should also mention one of the most infuriating examples of failure in this error: Make sure the application preserves the user’s state if it can.

If I incorrectly enter information into one field of a form, I should not have to redo the entire form.

3. Error Prevention

Even better than catching user error is preventing it in the first place with a smart system. Phone numbers can be entered in a number of ways.

Garbage-In-Garbage-Out” describes a method of making a good point of entry for information. In other words, if a username shouldn’t be more than 10 characters, don’t let me enter more than 10 characters in the first place. Doing so completely eliminates the need to take me back to the form and inform me to shorten the username myself.

4. Time Machining

Give users the ability to move through time. Let users return exactly to where they were before or skip ahead if needed. This is also a way to give users an emergency exit if they end up in the wrong place or take an action they later regret.

Giving users the ability to control the timeline of your application need not be an overhaul of its logic. Provide some simple undo actions in certain areas. Forms should have a “cancel” button. Dialogues should have close buttons. Allow users to change their passwords, undo actions, and revisit areas they’ve been already.

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