Harvest in South City
On the road to Moran Wyoming
Chuck points out volcanic plume as we leave twin falls Idaho
PNSQC Call for Abstracts
In this video, I discuss the PNSQC abstract submission process and why you should submit an abstract for this great conference.
Evaluating Software Learnability
Congrats to my good friend and colleague Irfan for his paper at a recent conference now available online at IEEE Xplore:
Evaluating software learnability: A learnability attributes model
Mobile Usability and User Experience Research Underway
I am now conducting research regarding mobile user experience. The experiments we are running consists of at least 4 dimensions.
Task
Tasks need to be clearly defined with a broad range of simple to complex depending on the application.
Device/Platform
Device used and OS will be a big factor in determining user experience. Especially for mobile devices where screen size is limited, the functionality of the software and how it integrates and utilizes the display is critical. Some buttons or icons on some display sizes may be unrecognizable on others.
Site/WebApp
This of course will impact user experience. We have to compare apples to apples in doing our benchmarking. Apps will be compared to themselves across versions, and also apps of similar kind where we can define exactly the same task can be compared. For example, buying a book on amazon versus barnes and noble.
User Community
Not all users have the same preferences. Older folks perhaps need bigger buttons or bigger font sizes, or perhaps simplicity is more important than function. Simplicity rules in all cases generally.
If you have any input or ideas on how we can improve our research or would like to participate, please give me a buzz. philiplew@xbosoft.com
We have some usability and user experience whitepapers on our site as well if you just want to learn more. www.xbosoft.com
Software Test Professionals 2012 – New Orleans
At my recent talk at STP in New Orleans, I gave a talk on usability and how it differs from user experience, and how to define and measure the two. What was fun for me was that I wore my XBOSoft cycling jersey and asked many questions of the audience during the talk. At the end, I gave away a jersey to the person who answered the most questions. The guy going for the jersey was really active, asking my questions, and contributing his own experience while also asking questions as well. I think people really want to know not only how to measure but how to compare legitimately to their competitors. My response was that any comparisons have to be done in precise context, given the user and the task at hand. For a copy of the slides, goto: http://www.xbosoft.com/contact/whitepaper/usability-and-user-experience-measurement
Today’s Ride – 4/14/2012
Today was one of the first warm days in BJ.
Had a decent ride, slow but steady. that’s what uncle steve says…
Posted in Running
Philip Lew 