Evaluation and Satisfaction Survey on the Interface Usability of Online Publishing Software

Table 1

Users needed and main advantage for different usability methods.

Method name	Users needed	Main advantages	Main disadvantages
Heuristic evaluation	None	Finding individual usability problems. Addressing expert user issues.	Not involving real users, so not finding “surprises” relating to their needs.
Performance measures	At least 10	Hard numbers. Results easy to compare.	Not finding individual usability problems.
Thinking aloud	3–5	Pinpointing user misconceptions. Cheap test.	Unnatural for users. Hard for expert users to verbalize.
Observation	3 or more	Ecological validity; revealing users’ real tasks. Suggesting functions and features.	Appointments hard to set up. No experimenter control.
Questionnaires	At least 30	Finding subjective user preferences. Easy to repeat.	Pilot work needed (to prevent misunderstandings).
Interviews	5	Flexible, in-depth attitude, and experience probing.	Time consuming. Hard to analyze and compare.
Focus groups	6–9 per group	Spontaneous reactions and group dynamics.	Hard to analyze. Low validity.
Logging actual use	At least 20	Finding highly used (or unused) features. Running continuously.	Analysis programs needed for huge mass of data. Violation of users’ privacy.
User feedback	Hundreds	Tracking changes in user requirements and views.	Special organization needed to handle replies.

Source: [1].