What Kinds of Usability-Problem Description are Useful to Developers?
Kasper Hornbæk, Erik Frøkjær · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2006
Descriptions of problems found in usability evaluations aim to help developers improve an interactive system. However, little is know about what makes a problem description useful to developers. The present paper describes how four developers assessed the utility of 619 usability problems and relates their assessments to characteristics of how problems were described. Developers find problem descriptions that are clear, propose solutions, and elaborate on why something is a problem of significantly higher utility than problems without such information. Problems coded as persistent for expert users are assessed of higher utility than descriptions of novice users' problems. Reference to observable user actions made no difference to developers' assessment of utility. While developers did not see problems produced with an empirical and an inspection method as differing in utility, methods differed in how problems were described. We conclude by discussing recommendations for how to report the results of usability evaluations.