The field of Human-Computer Interaction has a shared goal of producing interactive software that can be used efficiently, effectively, safely, and with satisfaction. The central concept of Human-Computer Interaction is usability, ease of use plus usefulness. An effective interaction development process is necessary for achieving good usability in software products.
In the Usability Methods Research Laboratory at Virginia Tech, Rex Hartson is leading a long-term project with a broad vision to bring methodology, theory, and practice together in creating a new generation of usability methods and tools to design, measure, and manage usability within the interaction development process life cycle.
This web site describes the usability methods and tools work
as it evolves toward achieving this vision.
Usability is about Developing the
User Interaction Design, not the User Interface Software
Usability of an interactive software application is seated within the design
of the user interaction component. The development of the interaction design
is essentially a human factors effort, not a software design effort, requiring
different methods and tools than those for software development (even user interface
software development). The view of the user interaction component is the user's
perspective of user interaction: how tasks are performed, what a user sees and
hears and does while interacting with the computer.
In contrast, the user interface software component is the programming code by which the interaction component is implemented. The user interaction design serves as part of the user interface software requirements, which are then matched to the constraints and style guidelines of the application development platform and program code is produced to implement the interaction design.