Playback: A method for evaluating the usability of software and its documentation
Alan S. Neal, Roger M. Simons · IBM Systems Journal · 1984
Human factors evaluations of software products and accompanying user publications must be conducted so that developers can be certain that the target user population can learn to use the product with a minimum of difficulty and be able to perform the intended tasks efficiently. A methodology is described for obtaining objective measures of product usability by collecting perfor-mance data on the user interface without affecting the user or the system being evaluated. The log of stored activity is later played back through the host system for analysis.