TESTING MODELS RESEARCH OF THE USABILITY OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of testing the software usability. Usability evaluation is an urgent problem nowadays as it is a determinative factor of software success among its users. This problem should be solved during the whole software development lifecycle in order to create the best product for consumers. Also, usability evaluation should be conducted after software delivering to the end users in order to estimate the degree of their satisfaction and to notice what has to be changed in the next product‟s version. A test plan was developed for load testing in the paper. The results of load testing showed that the developed software works stably with a hundred of simultaneously working users; it was confirmed by a zero percentage error and a small response time of the system to user‟s inquiries. The survey method was used to study the convenience of using the developed software within the real-world strategy. This decision was taken due to the low cost of research and the unobtrusive nature of this method. The survey provides the ability to process a large amount of statistical data, which increases the reliability of the measurement. The Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) survey method was used to measure the usability of the developed software. In order to study the usability of the developed software, it was performed the usability comparing of the developed system with similar systems. The plurality of software products was compared. Then several users evaluated the usability of the proposed software implementing the SUMI method. Based on individual assessments a group of experts estimated each product and compared its usability. The survey measured the following aspects of user satisfaction: efficiency; emotional reaction; ability to help; control; accessibility. In order to receive the reliable results, 12 users were polled using the SUMI questionnaire. Their responses were interpreted and processed on the basis of the Rash model. As a result, usability estimates were obtained. The consistency of expert judgments is determined with the help of the coefficient of variation.