Formal usability testing - informing design

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to discuss the role of usability testing in software development in South Africa. Throughout the software industry software engineers develop user interfaces (Ul) with little or no support from professional UI designers. As a consequence of this, commercial software often contains serious design errors. Producing a good computer system is not just about ensuring that both the computer and the human perform as efficiently as possible; in order to be usable it has to conform to ISO standards for usability. The results of formal usability testing can provide essential empirical information for the software design process that cannot be obtained using other usability evaluation methods