The development of a theoretical framework and design tool for process usability assessment

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Software Engineering
• Usability Engineering

Background:

• Usability engineering is crucial for reducing development costs and enhancing system quality.
• Advances in human-machine interface (HMI) design require accessible tools for engineers and designers.
• Existing methods may not fully integrate theoretical models of user interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and deliver a theoretically based software tool for usability engineering.
• To provide engineers and designers with access to the latest HMI design advances.
• To enable modeling of the human interaction process within system design.

Main Methods:

• Development of a hybrid model combining theoretical views of the interaction process.
• Creation of a software tool based on the hybrid model.
• Validation of the technique through laboratory and real-world testing.

Main Results:

• The software tool allows engineers to model human interaction and receive feedback.
• Feedback includes predictions on mental effort, system-human capability conformance, interaction time, and potential errors or confusion.
• Validation confirmed the hybrid model's accurate prediction of usability attributes.

Conclusions:

• The developed software tool effectively models human interaction processes in system design.
• The tool provides actionable feedback to improve system usability and user experience.
• The technique demonstrates reliable transferability from laboratory settings to real-world applications.