Overview of UX Evaluation
Organization in Hartson and Pyla
- UX Objectives (ch. 10, ch. 22 in 2nd edition)
- Intro Evaluation (ch. 12, ch. 21 in second)
- Low-cost Evaluation Methods (ch. 13, ch. 25 in 2nd)
- Rigorous Empirical Methodology (ch. 14 - 16, ch. 22-24 in 2nd)
- Evaluation Reporting (ch. 17, ch. 26-27 in 2nd)
Major Dimensions for Evaluation Methods
- Analytical vs. empirical
- Informal vs. formal
- Formative vs. summative
- Qualitative vs. quantitative
Other schemes
| Rosson and Carroll | Lewis and Rieman | Nielsen and Mack | Preece, Rogers and Sharp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analytical methods | Evaluating without Users | Formal methods | Predictive / Modeling user's task performance |
| Informal methods | Predictive / Asking experts | ||
| Empirical methods | Evaluating with Users | Empirical methods | Usability testing |
| Field studies | |||
| Automatic methods |
Preece, Rogers and Sharpe (PRS) also describe a "Quick and Dirty" evaluation paradigm, which seems to generally refer to informal empirical methods and what H&P call Rapid Evaluation Methods.
Discussion Questions
- What other ways are there for characterizing evaluation methods?