Common Industry Format Usability Tests
Nigel Bevan · 1999
A Common Industry Format for usability test reports is currently being agreed between major software suppliers and purchasers in an initiative co-ordinated by NIST. The objective is to raise the profile of usability in the procurement process, and to demonstrate the consequent benefits of acquiring products with increased usability. For the reports to be useful, they should contain reliable measures of usability. This requires a carefully designed evaluation procedure and use of appropriate metrics. BACKGROUND Usability will only be taken seriously when it is part of the acceptance criteria for a product, and this requires a means to specify usability goals and assess their achievement. In many organisations usability is ignored because there are no objective criteria for usability when developing and procuring products. A Common Industry Format for usability test reports is currently being agreed between major American software suppliers and purchasers in an initiative supported by NIST (the US National Institute of Standards and Technology) (Blanchard, 1998), and in co-operation with ACM SIGCHI. Although it is not at this stage intended to be the basis for a formal standard, material from relevant standards (such as ISO 9241-11) has been incorporated where appropriate.