This post is part of the ongoing series of reading reflections on HCI papers and articles. You can find the other posts ‘here.’
What is Usability?
From “Usability Engineering” Book by Jakob Nielsen
The usability of a product is the extent to which it can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. What I found interesting about this week’s reading was the ‘Memorability’ test, which is a test that measures how easy it is for users to remember how to use a product, and this article claims that modern interfaces, with their highly visible and interactive menus and buttons, are actually harder to remember than older interfaces. I think this is because the older interfaces are more static, and the user has to memorize the location of the buttons, but the newer interfaces are more dynamic, and the user has to memorize the function of the buttons. I think this is a very interesting point, and I think it is something that we should keep in mind when designing our interface.
Additionally, I felt the article’s insistence on having multiple interaction modes, to satiate users with varying levels of experience, was very interesting. The article also rightly points out that even expert users will require help from time to time, and that the interface should be designed to accommodate this. Therefore, I envision that ideally, every app should be seen as a collection of multiple modules, with each module, individually having multiple interaction modes, and the user should be able to switch between these modes at will. This will facilitate users organically grow from novice users to expert users on modules they frequent, while still having other modules that are more suited to their current level of experience.