Keywords
Usability, Remote Evaluation, Network, User
Feedback, User Motivation, Subjective Feedback
SUMMARY
How can good continuous feedback about the
effectiveness of a computer-human interface be
obtained from distributed users?
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, different parts of
a multimission ground data system (which are
maintained by different groups) are loosely
integrated and customized by flight projects on
their workstations to support their own mission
operations organizations. Each project and team
chooses the pieces it wants and is responsible for
configuring them in its preferred way. As a
result, users have many different configurations,
effectively precluding the development of a
centralized help facility and limiting the
practicality of many usability techniques.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are
significant usability problems with the interfaces
that people and teams configure for themselves.
It is typical for a flight project to pay experienced
ground system personnel to support them on a
daily basis, creating and revising scripts, graphical
user interfaces, and things that break. This leads
to spur-of-the-moment patches and workarounds
made with scripts that are not well documented
nor well managed, and with little consideration of
long-term usability issues. It is unlikely that
upcoming low-cost projects will be able to afford
this service. If there were an effective way to get
feedback about similar problems people have
across different flight projects, changes could be
requested in the delivered system and default
configurations which would reduce the need for
this expensive hand-holding. While there is a
process in place for reporting and tracking system
"failures", there is no good way to get a consistent
record of usability and operability concerns.
Because our users are geographically distributed,
we would like to obtain information from them
over the network about their operational concerns.
Automated measures of their activity are of
limited use because we are not experts in their
tasks. We would like their candid assessment of
what they feel contributes to and what they feel
reduces their productivity in their own context.
What are tools and techniques that can be used to
motivate users to communicate useful subjective
usability information to us over the network, with
a minimum effort on their part?
ISSUES
What kinds of useful subjective usability feedback
can be obtained over a network?
What approaches and techniques can be used to:
- secure the willingness and confidence of users to
communicate usability problems and concerns,
- assist them in recognizing useful feedback,
- assist them in communicating feedback with
minimum effort?
STRUCTURE
The structure of this SIG is informal discussion
moderated by the session leader. Additional
issues or concerns in the area of remote usability
evaluation are welcome. The first five minutes of
the session will be used to create and prioritize a
list of specific topics for discussion. Copies of an
audiotape of the session or meeting notes will be
available to SIG participants after the conference.
