A Comparative study of Usability Evaluation Methods

Usability is an essential quality of software systems. Many techniques have so far been projected for usability evaluation but they are not well integrated and fail to ensure all the aspects of usability. The inception of usability evaluation methods (UEMs) to assess and improve usability in such systems has led to a variety of alternative methodologies and a general lack of understanding of the proficiencies and limitations of each. This misperception has exaggerated the need for practitioners and others to regulate which methods are more operative, and in what ways and under what scenarios. However, UEMs cannot be assessed and equated reliably because of the lack of standard criteria for comparison. This paper aims at discussing various existing usability evaluation methods (UEM) that have been presented till 2015. Keywords— Usability, Usability Evaluation Methods (UEMs), Inspection Methods, Human Computer Interaction, Inquiry Methods, Testing Methods.