The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design

A commitment to usability in user interface design and development offers enormous benefits, including greater user productivity, more competitive products, lower support costs, and a more efficient development process. But what does it mean to be committed to usability? Inside, a twenty-year expert answers this question in full, presenting the techniques of Usability Engineering as a series of product lifecycle tasks that result directly in easier-to-learn, easier-to-use software. You'll learn to perform a complete requirements analysis and then incorporate the resulting goals and constraints in a highly structured, iterative design and development process. This process doesn't end with installation but instead begins anew with the collection of user feedback that will guide further development. Also covered are organizational issues related to the implementation of Usability Engineering, including cost justification, project planning, and organizational structures.

Features

• Unites all current UE techniques in a single, authoritative resource, presenting a coherent lifecycle process in which each clearly defined task leads directly the next.
• Teaches concrete, immediately usable skills to practitioners in all kinds of product development organizations-from internal departments to commercial developers to consultants.
• Contains examples of actual software development projects and the ways in which they have benefited from Usability Engineering.
• Deals in specifics, not generalities-provides detailed templates and instructions for every phase of the Usability Engineering lifecycle.
• Pays special attention to Web site development and explains how Usability Engineering principles can be applied to the development of any interactive product.

Authors:

Dr. Deborah J. Mayhew is owner and principal of Deborah J. Mayhew & Associates, a Massachusetts consulting firm that offers courses and consulting on all aspects of Usability Engineering and user interface design. Clients include American Airlines, AT&T, Ford, Harvard University, and NASA. Dr. Mayhew received her Ph.D. in Experimental Cognitive Psychology from Tufts University. She is the author of Principles and Guidelines in Software User Interface Design, a co-editor of Cost-Justifying Usability, and a contributor to Human Factors and Web Development.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
Chapter 2: User Profiles
Chapter 3: Contextual Task Analysis
Chapter 4: Usability Goal Setting
Chapter 5: Platform Capabilities and Constraints
Chapter 6: General Design Principles
DESIGN/TESTING/DEVELOPMENT
Design Level 1
Chapter 7: Work Reengineering
Chapter 8: Conceptual Model Design
Chapter 9: Conceptual Model Mockups
Chapter 10: Iterative Conceptual Model Evaluation
Design Level 2
Chapter 11: Screen Design Standards
Chapter 12: Screen Design Standards Prototyping
Chapter 13: Iterative Screen Design Standards Evaluation
Chapter 14: Style Guide Development
Design Level 3
Chapter 15: Detailed User Interface Design
Chapter 16: Iterative Detailed User Interface Design Evaluation
INSTALLATION
Chapter 17: User Feedback
ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
Chapter 18: Promoting and Implementing The Usability Engineering Lifecycle
Chapter 19: Usability Project Planning
Chapter 20: Cost-Justification
Chapter 21: Organizational Roles and Structures

Related Titles:

Human-Computer Interaction