The Impact of Usability Reports and User Test Observations on Developers' Understanding of Usability Data: An Exploratory Study

A usability evaluation provides a strong and rich basis for understanding and improving the design of user interaction with a software system. Exploiting this evaluation requires feedback that significantly impacts the developers’ understanding of usability data about the interaction design of the system. This article presents results from an exploratory study of 2 ways of providing feedback from a usability evaluation: observation of user tests and reading usability reports. A case study and a field experiment were used to explore how observation and usability reports impact developers’ understanding of usability data. The results indicate that observation of user tests facilitated a rich understanding of usability problems and created empathy with the users and their work. The usability report had a strong impact on the developers’ understanding of specific usability problems and supported a systematic approach to deal effectively with problems. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION, 21(2), 173–196 Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.