Usability review is the process of reviewing an artifact to test the ease of use, UI design parameters like user controls, recognition of features rather than recall, aesthetic design, etc ... The artifact could be any website or any application that has been developed, product or even a prototype.
Primary necessity of conducting a successful usability review is to clearly identify and define the goals of the artifact under review, meaning why it was developed and who the intended users would be. Another critical factor is to identify the persona. A persona in this context is a fictional representative who would be using the application. For instance the intended users could be experts in some cases and just any one for that matter in few cases. An understanding of persona hence makes it clear to the reviewer as to in whose shoes they should be reviewing the artifact.
What questions are to be answered?
- Whether the end user will be able to 'use' the application for the purpose for which it has been developed without any difficulties?
- How easily can the usage flow be completed with 'more of recognition rather than recall' of features?
- Are proper error messages, notifications, alerts, whatsoever where ever applicable being returned to the user?
Also useful would be the ten usability heuristics as defined by Jakob Nielson:
- Visibility of system status
- Match between system and the real world
- User control and freedom
- Consistency and standards
- Error prevention
- Recognition rather than recall
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
- Help and documentation
// Will be doing an actual usability review in my company for a mobile application development project tomorrow :-) //
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