Planes, Pains, and Phosphorane: Usability Studies in Non-Traditional Environments

Would an ill person interact with an application the same way as a healthy person? Could a simulation of a chemical spill provide the same stressful environment for emergency response workers to give realistic feedback about the usability of a chemical spill assistant application? Researchers have noted [1, 2] that traditional laboratory usability studies are insufficient for mobile applications. New field study evaluation techniques are being explored for mobile computing [3, 4], but we would argue that these techniques still do not capture the needs of users in non-traditional environments. Non-traditional environments often change rapidly without forewarning and have other environmental and operational constraints. Examples of non-traditional environments include, but are not limited to, healthcare facilities, emergency response, and maintenance areas (especially for military maintenance areas during times of war). Current field study evaluation techniques can not be used in these environments because they do not account for the limited space, testing equipment, privacy concerns, safety, and stress associated with non-traditional environments. During this special interest group (SIG) meeting, we will present case studies and methodologies for designing usability studies in non-traditional environments. The purpose of the SIG is to discuss how we can create a framework for conducting usability studies, deploy applications, and monitor applications in non-traditional environments.