Evaluating User Interfaces

Overview

Class Central Tips

In this course you will learn and practice several techniques for user interface evaluation. First we start with techniques that can be applied alone or in a design team, including action analysis, walkthroughs, and heuristic evaluation. Then we move on to user testing, including learning from a series of usability tests carried out in a real usability lab, and techniques to carry out your own tests even without a lab. Finally, we wrap up the discussion of evaluation--and of UI Design in the specialization as a whole--by looking at the question of how to set and measure usability goals, and in turn, when a design is usable enough to release it.

Syllabus

Preface

We situate evaluation in the larger UI design process and provide an introduction to the course's content.

Evaluation without Users (Part 1)

We cover industry-standard techniques for evaluating interfaces without users, a lower-cost approach that precedes higher-cost "with user" strategies (Part 1 of 2).

Evaluation without Users (Part 2)

We continue our overview of evaluation techniques that do not involve users (Part 2 of 2).

Evaluation with Users (Part 1)

We dive into the most important - and most costly - family of evaluation techniques: those that involve testing your user interface with real users (Part 1 of 3)