What usability evaluation methods do you use?

Question

What usability evaluation methods do you use?

• GOMS?
• Cognitive Walkthrough?
• Think aloud protocol?

Others? (apart from 'ask your mum' tips that are well covered elsewhere on SO)

Answer 1

1. Dogfooding. Using our own application we quickly find out which parts are clunky or inconvenient to use.

2. Log and analyse support calls, and track what parts of the application users have trouble using or finding.

3. Usability tests. We write down a task, as near to an actual use case as we can, and ask a few users to perform it. We watch them do it, ask them to think aloud while they're doing it, and ask them lots of questions afterwards.

Answer 2

build the UI out of pieces of paper. create several task scenarios - probably don't expect to cover the entire UI in one sitting. find good test subjects based on target audience (this may be the hardest part). provide said subjects with printed agenda .. provide a human-being to act as 'help system' but otherwise stay quiet .. ask subjects to 'think out loud' - say what their brain is doing (why good subjects are hard to find) .. video what happens and analyze. ..fix stuff, and iterate.

Answer 3

GOMS is way too heavyweight (and too far from reality) for most tasks ... i'd suggest something way more lightweight like hallway usability testing, as advocated by joel spolsky:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html