Thoughts on Human Computer Interaction

“The usability of products has traditionally been tested in controlled laboratory settings. This approach emphasizes how usable a product is. It has been most commonly used to evaluate desktop applications, such as websites, word processors, and search tools. Doing usability testing in a laboratory, or a temporarily assigned controlled environment, enables evaluators to control what users do and to control environmental and social influences that might impact users’ performance. The goal is to test whether the product being developed is usable by the intended user population to achieve the tasks for which it was designed” (Rogers, Sharp, & Preece, 2012). Thoughts  As my team and I conducted our initial usability test for accessing the audit worksheet for the BS in Information Technology on Middle Georgia State University’s website, we discovered that our users had a difficult time finding it in a timely manner. This led to the users becoming frustrated with the website and a...

“Evaluation is integral to the design process. Evaluators collect information about users’ or potential users’ experiences when interacting with a prototype, a computer system, a component of a computer system, an application, or a design artifact such as a screen sketch. They do this to improve its design. Evaluation focuses on both the usability of the system…and on the users’ experience when interacting with the system” (Rogers, Sharp, & Preece, 2012). Reflections Interaction design as a whole is truly focused on the end user experience. Every aspect comes back around to whether or not the user can utilize the product effectively and with ease. Evaluation expounds upon product usability observation and helps engineers and designers determine what aspects of the product needs improvement and what they got right with the initial design. Thoughts As we have been working on developing our new health information system evaluation has been key in helping decide which applications ...