useability

Today’s lecture was about usability. It was our first lecture with Daniel Cunliffe. Who will be lecturing us for the next 4 weeks. In our lecture we were introduced to the basics of usability. We are going to be focused on multimedia applications such as Macromedia suite or Adobe photoshop. Multimedia applications are used in a variety of contexts. Some are only used once such as software at trade shows and others are used multiple times, such as presentations in shops. They can be used for single users(one user using the software alone) or multiple users. You must consider what the application is used for. Eg. Informing/ teaching/entertaining. And who is going to use the software? The program will have to be different for novice users as opposed to more experienced users as they will not know what to with the software straight away and will struggle to adjust. What location are the users going to be using the software? Online test will have supervision for example and the program could be designed for the specific computers. However on a web based application you have little or no control of the location it will be used in. we can use the CUTS model which stands for Context (how will it be used?, in what situation?),User (who will use it? Are they experienced users or do they need a more simple system? What do they want from the application? What do they need for it? How do you motivate the user to use the application?), Task(what is it made to do? Does it do the same task all the time? How many times a day is it used?) and System (does it require standard equipment such as mouse and keyboard or can you use different input devices? What type of specification is required? Processing speed, how long will it take to do a required task? What about connection speed?) to realise what we need to consider when developing an application. Definition of effectiveness: “The effectiveness efficiency and satisfaction in which specified users can achieve specified goals”. Also the system should be pleasant to use and relatively straight forwards to operate. It should not require too much concentration. The system should have good functionality but also be useable and suit the environment.