Sample Question:

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JSR Notes:

First of all, remember that "usability" means how does the technology or system suit everybody, and "accessibility" is particularly referring only to those with some sort of disability.

And do note that this assessment statement is aimed at "a" (as in, a specific) "system.

Here's a fresh example: Food distribution system Big C Grocery Store door-to-door delivery of groceries and everything else they sell

You need to consider the full range of usability problems that can occur in the system:

• Customers end up buying something that is not what they think it is.
• The system is not in a language all users understand.
• Lots of language/interpretation issues even for speakers of the system's language.
• Scanning/choice of the wrong code because the products are close together.
• The possibility of fraud issues - for example credit card theft.
• Delivery issues, like late delivery, or wrong address, etc.
• Accidental buying of things more times than intended.
• Selecting to buy more than a customer can afford.
• Network goes down, which results in incomplete orders or no service at all.
• Slow network, which causes delays and/or frustration to users.

 

Specfic Examples (mentioned in the Teaching Note)

Here are three of the specific situations in more detail, as collated at Mr Laorunal's website:

 

Online payroll

With an online payroll system, the inputs are: Employee identification code, hours worked, and rate of pay (e.g. $25 per hour).

And the outputs from a payroll system are: A printed payslip, and a pay cheque, or an payment directly into the employee's bank account .

Potential usability issues include:

• Internet Service Provider (ISP) downtime.
  
• Depending on the complexity of the system, employees may have trouble learning how to work with it.
  
• Employees might not have a bank in order to be payed on-line (versus cash).
  
• This system might be complex to set up.
• Clients may not be able to understand all the calculations and deductions, due to poor organization of the communication on the form.
• The network is hard to log onto in busy times, particularly payday.

 

Voice Recognition

Two examples if situations in which voice recognition can be used are security login with Siri etc. on iPhones etc.

Potential usability issues include:

• There may be a limited dictionary in the voice recognition software, so it may not include certain words such as slang terms.
• If the user has a speech impediment then the software may have trouble recognizing what they are saying.
  
• People from different regions of the world and backgrounds may have different dialects and accents which the system is not be able to deal with.
  
• The system may not be able to recognize different words if the user speaks very quickly or too slowly.
  
• Users may not want to speak about important and sensitive information in a public space. As well as people speaking in a lower volume when in public, the system may not be able to ‘hear’ the user.
  
• Security and privacy issues may arise due to the limited security of the system.
  
• If the user is in an area with a lot of ambient noise then the system may not be able to cancel out this noise.
  
• If the database of words is not stored locally and there are network errors then the system is not able to work.
• Ums and ahws may affect the accuracy.

 

Other Examples

For the last three examples from the Teaching Notes, I'll put a couple of issues, but be prepared yourself to come up with a couple more:

Ticketing

• Getting the wrong seat
• A seat getting double-booked

Scheduling

For example, scheduling of courses at a school, the input of student choices is slow and prone to errors.

• Hard, or impossible, to automatically try different scenarios of scheduling to solve conflicts.

Systems that Provide Feedback

For example an ATM, or on-line purchasing, like at Amazon.com.

Potential usability issues include:

• The feedback may not be of good enough quality, or clear enough, or given quickly enough
• The speaker or the vibration doesn't' work, or clumsy thumbs issues.

 

CompSci2014.wikispaces.com **

WikiBooks.org

 

Jose: "usability" and "ease of use" are interchangeable.

Usability is both hardware and software.