Measure User Performance Research Articles

Measurement of user performance and attitudes assists the initial design of a computer user display and orientation method

The objective of our study was to assess the acceptability of a proposed user interface to visually interfaced computer-assisted anesthesia record (VISI-CAARE), before the application was begun. The user interface was defined as the user display and its user orientation methods. We designed methods to measure user performance and attitude toward two different anesthesia record procedures: (1) the traditional pen and paper anesthetic record procedure of our hospital, and (2) VISI-CAARE. Performance measurements included the reaction speed (identifying the type and time of an event) and completion speed (describing the event). Performance also included accuracy of the recorded time of the event and accuracy of the description. User attitude was measured by (1) the physician's rating on a scale of 0 to 9 of the potential usefulness of computers in anesthesia care; (2) willingness to use the future application in the clinical environment; and (3) user suggestions for change. These measurements were used in a randomized trial of 21 physicians, of which data from 20 were available. After exposure to VISI-CAARE, the experimental subjects' ranking of computer usefulness in anesthesia care improved significantly (4.2 +/- 1.1 to 7.6 +/- 1.5, p = 0.0001), as did controls' (5.2 +/- 2.6 to 8 +/- 1.5, p = 0.0019). All the volunteers were willing to try the proposed prototype clinically, when it was ready. VISI-CAARE exposure was associated with faster and more accurate reaction to events over the traditional pen and paper machine, and slower and more accurate description of events in an artificial mock setting. VISI-CAARE 1.1 demonstrated significant improvements in both reaction speed and completion speed over VISI-CAARE 1.0, after changes were made to the user display and orientation methods. With graphic user interface prototyping environments, one can obtain preliminary user attitude and performance data, even before application programming is begun. This may be helpful in revising initial display and orientation methods, while obtaining user interest and commitment before actual programming and clinical testing.

Usability measurement in context

Abstract Different approaches to the measurement of usability are reviewed and related to definitions of usability in international standards. It is concluded that reliable measures of overall usability can only be obtained by assessing the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which representative users carry out representative tasks in representative environments.This requires a detailed understanding of the context of use of a product. The ESPRIT MUSiC project has developed tools which can be used to measure usability in the laboratory and the field. An overview is given of the methods and tools for measuring user performance, cognitive workload, and user perceived quality.

A practical guide to using software usability labs: lessons learned at IBM

Usability evaluation is a key component of a user-centred design process. Access to a usability laboratory can greatly facilitate the process of empirically measuring user performance, but the mere...

An approximate user-complexity measure for relational query language systems

Complexity theory provides a powerful methodology for evaluating the time and space requirements of algorithms. It would be helpful if a similar theory could be developed to analyze the level of difficulty presented to the user by database query languages. The relational database languages are of particular interest. Their power and flexibility have real potential for supporting the decision making needs of managers. In this paper an approximate user complexity measure is formulated and applied to three different experiments. These experiments measure user performance in the following tests: (1) relational algebra versus tuple calculus, (2) relational algebra versus domain calculus, and (3) relational algebra versus functional algebra. The results favor the procedural relational languages, and the approximate complexity measure constructed here parallels user performance.

An instrumentation system to measure user performance in interactive systems

Many software tools are interactive in nature and require a close match between the user's knowledge of how a task is to be performed and the capabilities the tool provides. This paper describes the current status of an instrumentation and analysis package to measure user performance in an interactive system. A prototype measurement system is considered to evaluate a screen editor and to develop models of user behavior.