A planning aid for human factors evaluation practice

Abstract

Abstract The work reported here attempts to address Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design problems by the creation of support for the conceptualization of such problems during evaluation. This support takes the form of a planning aid intended to aid novice human factors practitioners(recently qualified graduates, for example) to evaluate interactive work systems. The planning aidprovides a structure for relating and recruiting techniques used in Human Factors (HF) evaluations. It incorporates relevant information for planning an evaluation (e.g., evaluation methods themselves), and offers advice in the form of heuristics about the use of the methods, their selection, and configuration. The output of the planning aid is an evaluation plan.This paper reports the development of the planning aid, and illustrates its application with a case study. Two assessments of the planning aid with novice HF practitioners are also presented and discussed.