Usability from three angles

May, 2002

Usability is a measure of the quality of a person's experience when interacting with a product or system - whether it's a Web site, a software application, a mobile technology, or any user-operated device (see some other definitions).

Most usability studies are applied to a single type of tool. For hardware devices, this approach might make sense, but in information systems, tools are used in combination and often interact. The current focus on Web site usability, to the exclusion of other information tools, is too narrow.

This article deals with usability from three different angles:

• What are some good books about usability?
• How usable are the books themselves as knowledge tools?
• How would we design the books if the authors were on our corporate payroll?

Includes a "usability scorecard" table.

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Created on May 30, 2002