New approaches to usability evaluation in software development: Barefoot and crowdsourcing

Abstract

Usability evaluations provide software development teams with insights on the degree to which software applications enable users to achieve their goals, how fast these goals can be achieved, how easy an application is to learn and how satisfactory it is in use. Although such evaluations are crucial in the process of developing software systems with a high level of usability, their use is still limited in small and medium-sized software development companies. Many of these companies are e.g. unable to allocate the resources that are needed to conduct a full-fledged usability evaluation in accordance with a conventional approach.This paper presents and assesses two new approaches to overcome usability evaluation obstacles: a barefoot approach where software development practitioners are trained to drive usability evaluations; and a crowdsourcing approach where end users are given minimalist training to enable them to drive usability evaluations. We have evaluated how these approaches can reduce obstacles related to limited understanding, resistance and resource constraints. We found that these methods are complementary and highly relevant for software companies experiencing these obstacles. The barefoot approach is particularly suitable for reducing obstacles related to limited understanding and resistance while the crowdsourcing approach is cost-effective.