CHARLES RIVER ANALYTICS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Currently available usability assessment tools provide a variety of approaches to automate

Description

Currently available usability assessment tools provide a variety of approaches to automated graphical user interface (GUI) evaluation, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. To optimally exploit each tool"s strengths, a structured framework for integration is needed. However, a unifying framework that combines the outputs of various tools is not sufficient since it fails to address the need for fusing qualitative assessments and critiques. Therefore, we propose to design and demonstrate a taxonomy-based Interface System Production, Evaluation, and Comparison Tool (INSPECT) suite. The INSPECT suite has three major functions: (1) an assessment knowledge repository that captures and formats usability metrics, evaluation methods, and tools; (2) support for collaborative exploration, modification, and plug-and-play extension of the repository; and (3) repository-based guidance that streamlines the GUI assessment process and both solicits information from and provides information to analysts (e.g., by soliciting qualitative ratings when needed, automatically capturing quantitative metrics, explaining any redesign strategies). Analysts using the INSPECT suite to perform GUI assessments will spend less time and effort, and the results will be more comprehensive, structured, and repeatable while remaining flexible, harnessing analysts"judgments, and requiring less usability expertise.