Integrating Usability Evaluation into User Interface Modeling

摘要

Inadequate conceptual design for user interface is a significant source of usability errors found in GUI applications. However, usability evaluation does not come into play during conceptual design because of no feasible basis. In this paper, we propose a navigational model as a conceptual design tool. Since the model is intended to provide a high-level description of user-computer interaction, usability becomes an indispensable evaluation criterion for ensuring its quality. Some of the established usability principles found in the literature are identified as guidance for constructing and evaluating the navigational model. Early usability evaluation can help the developer elicit unstructured usability requirements and discover usability errors that otherwise would pass unnoticed during the early phase of user interface development.