Author(s)
Helen Sharp, Yvonne Rogers and Jenny Preece
Country
The chapter includes case studies from the USA, India and the United Kingdom
Date
2007
Writing Style
Educational textbook style
Publication
Interaction Design: beyond human-computer interaction, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons
Context
Evaluation is integral to the design process, focusing on both usability and user experience
Main Evaluation Approaches:
Usability Testing: Controlled experiments in a laboratory setting to measure user performance.
Field Studies: Observations of users in natural settings to understand how products mediate their activities.
Analytical Evaluation: Methods like heuristic evaluation or walkthroughs that do not involve end-users directly.
Case Studies: Includes evaluating a mobile record-keeping system for rural Indian nurses (HutchWorld), cell phones for world markets and using physiological indicators (GSR) to measure excitement in collaborative games
Terminology
Formative Evaluation: Evaluations done during design to ensure the product meets user needs.
Summative Evaluation: Evaluations done when a design is finished to assess its success against standards.
Heuristic Evaluation: An approach where knowledge of typical users is applied, guided by design principles, to identify usability problems.
Triangulation: Using different sources of data to gain an overview of a system’s usability.