Research report "Specifying usability requirements and test criteria for interactive systems" published
Cologne, 29 May 2004
A recently published research report of the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (FIOSH) gives valuable information for the successful application of ISO-Standards in the design of usable interactive systems (software products and hardware products).
On the occasion of reviewing the usability standard ISO 9241-10 "Dialogue principles", the experiences of applying the software parts of ISO 9241 (parts 10 to 17) in analysis, design and evaluation of interactive systems are reflected and summarized in this research report.
Also, suggestions for improving the software parts of ISO 9241 are put forward for the international standards committee and for practitioners who want to apply the standard series in usability design and quality assurance more properly. Terms and definitions such as design principle, requirement, and criterion are refined to specify the underlying concepts more distinctly, especially with regard to their application in requirements analysis and conformity testing. The content of the adapted definitions has been harmonized with established terms in requirements engineering and quality assurance.
An application framework is introduced to help requirements engineers and usability designers to apply the dialogue design principles of ISO 9241-10 for verifying the quality level of context-related usability requirements. Potential misunderstandings about the specification of usability requirements in terms of user performance are clarified. Guidance is given to manufacturers of interactive systems on how to specify usability requirements with regard to the context of use (ISO 9241-11). The application framework also aims at assisting usability assessors in specifying usability test criteria. Looking ahead to the review of further parts of ISO 9241, a lot of suggestions are provided for being considered in the standardization process regarding the structure and content of the multipart standard ISO 9241.
Key words:
usability, usability standards, ISO 9241-10, requirements specification, conformity with standards, quality test, computerized work place
Research report Fb 1010:
Specifying usability requirements and test criteria for interactive systems
Thomas Geis, Wolfgang Dzida, Wolfgang Redtenbacher
ISBN 3-86509-115-6, published in 2004
61 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables
Download PDF-File (61 pages, 257 KByte)
On the occasion of reviewing the usability standard ISO 9241-10 "Dialogue principles", the experiences of applying the software parts of ISO 9241 (parts 10 to 17) in analysis, design and evaluation of interactive systems are reflected and summarized in this research report.
Also, suggestions for improving the software parts of ISO 9241 are put forward for the international standards committee and for practitioners who want to apply the standard series in usability design and quality assurance more properly. Terms and definitions such as design principle, requirement, and criterion are refined to specify the underlying concepts more distinctly, especially with regard to their application in requirements analysis and conformity testing. The content of the adapted definitions has been harmonized with established terms in requirements engineering and quality assurance.
An application framework is introduced to help requirements engineers and usability designers to apply the dialogue design principles of ISO 9241-10 for verifying the quality level of context-related usability requirements. Potential misunderstandings about the specification of usability requirements in terms of user performance are clarified. Guidance is given to manufacturers of interactive systems on how to specify usability requirements with regard to the context of use (ISO 9241-11). The application framework also aims at assisting usability assessors in specifying usability test criteria. Looking ahead to the review of further parts of ISO 9241, a lot of suggestions are provided for being considered in the standardization process regarding the structure and content of the multipart standard ISO 9241.
Key words:
usability, usability standards, ISO 9241-10, requirements specification, conformity with standards, quality test, computerized work place
Research report Fb 1010:
Specifying usability requirements and test criteria for interactive systems
Thomas Geis, Wolfgang Dzida, Wolfgang Redtenbacher
ISBN 3-86509-115-6, published in 2004
61 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables
Download PDF-File (61 pages, 257 KByte)