Methods
Practitioners in usability and user-centered design (UCD) employ a wide range of methods for gathering information about users and their tasks, analyzing needs, creating design solutions, iterating designs through testing and evaluation, and measuring efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction.
This section of the BoK presents descriptions of methods, including procedures, resources needed, outcomes, appropriate uses, benefits, and costs. These descriptions will form the core of a knowledgebase that defines our field and will help communicate usability methods to clients, project managers, and team members. Usability practitioners will also benefit from cross-referencing of related methods and pointers to outside resources for more details.
Samples of Content
- Affinity Diagramming
- Brainstorming
- Card Sorting
- Checklist
- Claims Analysis
- Context of Use Analysis
- Contextual Inquiry
- Critical Incident Technique (CIT)
- Cultural Probe
- Diary Study
- Ethnography
- Field Study
- Focus Group
- Formative Evaluation
- Free Listing
- Function Allocation
- Heuristic Evaluation
- Metaphor Brainstorming
- Parallel Design
- Phone Interview
- Photo Study
- Pluralistic Usability Walkthrough
- Rapid Prototyping
- Rating Scales
- Storyboard
- Wireframe
- Wizard of Oz
Some Future Subjects
- Affinity Diagramming
- Card Sorting
- Cognitive Walkthrough
- Contextual Inquiry
- Interviews
- Paper Prototyping
- Personas
- Satisfaction Surveys
- Scenarios of Use
- Selecting Methods
- Storyboarding
- Usability Testing
- Use Cases
