Usability Evaluation Practices within Agile Development

BACKGROUND Technology is increasingly embedded into the full spectrum of health care. This movement has benefited from the application of software development practices such as usability testing and agile development processes. These practices are frequently applied in both commercial or operational and academic settings. However, the relative importance placed on rapid iteration, validity, reproducibility, generalizability, and efficiency differs between the 2 settings and the needs and objectives of academic versus pragmatic usability evaluations. OBJECTIVE This paper explores how usability evaluation typically varies on key dimensions in pragmatic versus academic settings that impact the rapidity, validity, and reproducibility of findings and proposes a hybrid approach aimed at satisfying both pragmatic and academic objectives. METHODS We outline the characteristics of pragmatic versus academically oriented usability testing in health care, describe the tensions and gaps resulting from differing contexts and goals, and present a model of this hybrid process along with 2 case studies of digital development projects in which we demonstrate this integrated approach to usability evaluation. RESULTS The case studies presented illustrate design choices characteristic of our hybrid approach to usability evaluation. CONCLUSIONS Designed to leverage the strengths of both pragmatically and academically focused usability studies, a hybrid approach allows new development projects to efficiently iterate and optimize from usability data as well as preserves the ability of these projects to produce deeper insights via thorough qualitative analysis to inform further tool development and usability research by way of academically focused dissemination.

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Managing usability evaluation practices in agile development environments

International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) ◽

10.11591/ijece.v9i2.pp1288-1297 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 1288

Author(s):

Aziz Bin Deraman ◽

Fouad Abdulameer Salman

Keyword(s):

Evaluation Process ◽

Development Stage ◽

Usability Evaluation ◽

Management Tool ◽

Agile Development ◽

Software Projects ◽

Software Usability ◽

Software Products ◽

Development Teams ◽

Tightly Coupled

<span lang="EN-US">Usability evaluation is a core usability activity that minimizes risks and improves product quality. The returns from usability evaluation are undeniable. Neglecting such evaluation at the development stage negatively affects software usability. In this paper, the authors develop a software management tool used to incorporate usability evaluation activities into the agile environment. Using this tool, agile development teams can manage a continuous evaluation process, tightly coupled with the development process, allowing them to develop high quality software products with adequate level of usability. The tool was evaluated through verification, followed by the validation on satisfaction. The evaluation results show that the tool increased software development practitioner satisfaction and is practical for supporting usability work in software projects. </span>

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USABILITY EVALUATION METHOD FOR MOBILE LEARNING APPLICATION USING AGILE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v77.6116 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 77 (5) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Azham Hussain ◽

Abdulkarim Saleh ◽

Abdussalam Taher ◽

Imman Ahmed ◽

Mohammed Lammasha

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Mobile Learning ◽

Mobile Phones ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Development Process ◽

Evaluation Method ◽

Usability Evaluation ◽

Agile Development ◽

Development Processes ◽

User Friendly

The use of mobile phones for academic purpose has been on the rise in recent years. Most m-learning applications have been proved that they did not undergo usability evaluation while a few of the application underwent reliable usability evaluations. This paper reviews previous research that has been carried out to evaluate the usability of m-learning applications and how this approach could be integrated into the Agile development process in a bid to make a more effective and usable m-learning application. We focus on previous works that has been done in both, mobile application usability and integration of agile approaches for Usability evaluation. The incorporation of agile development processes and the usability evaluation of m-learning applications has produced a significant impact. This is seen as more m-learning applications are done in the sprints with the usability evaluation preceding it and following the development process which makes the applications more usable and user friendly.

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An Analysis of Usability Evaluation Practices And Contexts of Use In Wearable Robotics

10.21203/rs.3.rs-764275/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jan Thomas Meyer ◽

Roger Gassert ◽

Olivier Lambercy

Keyword(s):

Technology Acceptance ◽

Performance Metrics ◽

Usability Evaluation ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Ease Of Use ◽

User Centered Design ◽

Wearable Robotics ◽

Evaluation Practices ◽

Technology Maturity ◽

User Centered

Abstract Background : User-centered design approaches have gained attention over the past decade, aiming to tackle the technology acceptance issues of wearable robotic devices to assist, support or augment human capabilities. While there is a consensus that usability is key to user-centered design, dedicated usability evaluation studies are scarce and clear evaluation guidelines are missing. However, the careful consideration and integration of user needs appears to be essential to successfully develop an effective, efficient, and satisfactory human-robot interaction. Methods : Through an online survey for developers of wearable robotics, we wanted to understand how the design and evaluation in actual daily practice compares to what is reported in literature. With a total of 31 questions, we analyzed the most common wearable robotic device applications and their technology maturity, and how these influence usability evaluation practices. Results : A total of 158 responses from a heterogeneous population were collected and analyzed. The dataset representing contexts of use for augmentation (16.5%), assistance (38.0%), therapy (39.8%), as well as few other specifc applications (5.7%), allowed for an insightful analysis of the influence of technology maturity on user involvement and usability evaluation. We identifed functionality, ease of use, and performance as the most evaluated usability attributes and could specify which measures are used to assess them. Also, we could underline the frequent use of qualitative measures alongside the expected high prevalence of performance-metrics. In conclusion of the analysis, we derived evaluation recommendations to foster user-centered design and usability evaluation. Conclusion : This analysis might serve as state-of-the-art comparison and recommendation for usability studies in wearable robotics. We believe that by motivating for more balanced, comparable and user-oriented evaluation practices, we may support the wearable robotics field in tackling the technology acceptance limitations.

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An analysis of usability evaluation practices and contexts of use in wearable robotics

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation ◽

10.1186/s12984-021-00963-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jan Thomas Meyer ◽

Roger Gassert ◽

Olivier Lambercy

Keyword(s):

Technology Acceptance ◽

Performance Metrics ◽

Usability Evaluation ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Ease Of Use ◽

User Centered Design ◽

Wearable Robotics ◽

Evaluation Practices ◽

Technology Maturity ◽

User Centered

Abstract Background User-centered design approaches have gained attention over the past decade, aiming to tackle the technology acceptance issues of wearable robotic devices to assist, support or augment human capabilities. While there is a consensus that usability is key to user-centered design, dedicated usability evaluation studies are scarce and clear evaluation guidelines are missing. However, the careful consideration and integration of user needs appears to be essential to successfully develop an effective, efficient, and satisfactory human-robot interaction. It is primarily the responsibility of the developer, to ensure that this users involvement takes place throughout the design process. Methods Through an online survey for developers of wearable robotics, we wanted to understand how the design and evaluation in actual daily practice compares to what is reported in literature. With a total of 31 questions, we analyzed the most common wearable robotic device applications and their technology maturity, and how these influence usability evaluation practices. Results A total of 158 responses from a heterogeneous population were collected and analyzed. The dataset representing contexts of use for augmentation (16.5%), assistance (38.0%), therapy (39.8%), as well as few other specific applications (5.7%), allowed for an insightful analysis of the influence of technology maturity on user involvement and usability evaluation. We identified functionality, ease of use, and performance as the most evaluated usability attributes and could specify which measures are used to assess them. Also, we could underline the frequent use of qualitative measures alongside the expected high prevalence of performance-metrics. In conclusion of the analysis, we derived evaluation recommendations to foster user-centered design and usability evaluation. Conclusion This analysis might serve as state-of-the-art comparison and recommendation for usability studies in wearable robotics. We believe that by motivating for more balanced, comparable and user-oriented evaluation practices, we may support the wearable robotics field in tackling the technology acceptance limitations.

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