An empirical experiment of a usability requirements elicitation method to design GUIs based on interviews
Yeshica Isela Ormeño, José Ignacio Panach, Óscar Pastor · Information and Software Technology · 2023
The usability requirements elicitation process is a difficult task that lacks methods to guide and help analysts, who are usually not experts at usability. This paper conducts an experiment with two replications to evaluate a method that elicits usability requirements based on structured interviews named UREM versus an unstructured method. The method consists of guided interviews by the analyst using decision trees. The tree is composed of questions and possible answers. Each question appears when there are different possible design alternatives, and each answer represents one of these alternatives. The tree also recommends the alternative that enhances the usability based on existing usability guidelines. We have conducted an experiment with two replications with 22 and 26 subjects playing two different roles in a within-subjects design. The analysts used a tree to guide the interview and elicit the requirements while the end users had to explain to the analyst the type of system to develop. During the interview, the analyst must design a paper prototype to be validated by the end user. For the analyst, the experiment measures the effectiveness of usability requirements elicitation, the effectiveness of the use of the usability guidelines, the efficiency of the elicitation process, and the satisfaction with the entire elicitation process. For the end user, the experiment measures the satisfaction with the designed prototype at the end of the interview. UREM yielded significantly better results for the effectiveness in the usability requirements elicitation process and for the effectiveness in the use of usability guidelines when compared to unstructured interviews. The use of UREM did not reduce the analysts’ efficiency and both analyst and end user remained the same satisfaction. Eliciting usability requirements is a difficult task if it is done with unstructured interviews and without usability recommendations.