Robert C. Williges / Ray A. Reaux
Abstract: User-system interface (USI) guidelines are emerging as a tool for user interface design. The roles of levels of abstraction (concrete and abstract) and of guideline presentation medium (hard copy or on-line) on detection of USI guidelines violations in user-system interface evaluation were investigated. Overall, less than 50% of the guideline violations were detected by software engineers. Abstract guideline violations were more difficult to detect than concrete guideline violations, and on-line presentation resulted in relatively higher guideline usage during evaluation than hard copy presentation. It was concluded that improvements in USI guideline form and media are required to make guidelines a more useful USI design tool.
Keywords: Evaluation, Empirical studies, Guidelines, Usability
Note: Originally published in Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting, 1988, pp. 330-334, (online access).
Republished: G. Perlman, G. K. Green & M. S. Wogalter (Eds) Human Factors Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: Selections from Proceedings of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meetings, 1983-1994, Santa Monica, California: HFES, 1995, pp. 152-156.