Improving a Usability Inspection Technique Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Usability is one of the most important factors that determine the quality of software product. Many usability inspection methods are gaining popularity as an effective alternative for addressing usability issues. However, usability evaluations are often avoided by developers and software companies due to their lack of knowledge and experience in the field. Usability evaluation can be expensive in terms of time and human resources; and sometimes companies' projects do not have budget to hire an expert inspector. Additionally, most of the evaluation methods can only be applied late in development, increasing correction costs. Aiming at solving this problem, we proposed a set of inspection techniques called MIT - Model Inspection Techniques for Usability Evaluation. This paper focuses on one of these techniques: the MIT2 technique that supports the inspection of mockups by software engineers. The goal of this paper is to present the evaluation and the evolution of MIT 2 (version 2), through the results of an empirical study. We discuss the quantitative and qualitative results of the result and their impact on improving the MIT2 technique. We analyzed the qualitative data using the procedures from the Grounded Theory (GT) method. Results indicated that our technique assists nonexpert inspectors uncovering usability problems effectively; the MIT 2 (v2) was considered easy to use and useful by the participants of the study. Finally, the qualitative analysis points out relevant improvement opportunities.