Deriving design recommendations through discount usability engineering: ethnographic observation and thinking-aloud...

Usability engineering often involves experimental evaluation designs carried out in special usability laboratories. Though becoming more popular in medical informatics, the approach is little used. Possibly this is because of the expense involved in set-up, data collection, and data analysis. Excellent results may be obtained, however, by employing discount usability engineering and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to generate recommendations to improve usability. A prototype computer-based teaching case was evaluated in a discount usability engineering approach by combining modified ethnographic observation with simplified thinking aloud protocol. Data was collected and analyzed using standard approaches for qualitative data. This approach led to helpful recommendations for designing teaching cases. The project team believes this economical approach to usability testing may be helpful to others engaged in interface design.