Verification and modification of the display design process using fuzzy linguistic patterns

Abstract

Evaluating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) without conducting usability testing reduces the time and cost associated with GUI usability evaluation. Although theoretical frameworks using fuzzy linguistic patterns for GUI evaluation have been proposed, their empirical validity has not been verified. In addition, the specific forms of membership functions needed to evaluate different GUIs have not been determined. This study aims to empirically validate the GUI evaluation framework based on fuzzy linguistic patterns. First, we identified the necessary membership functions (Out of ten, six were nonlinear functions) for evaluating GUIs using a psychological evaluation to determine the approximate shape of membership function in each linguistic pattern. Then, we obtained evaluation scores for GUI prototypes using these fuzzy patterns. Laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate various GUIs and to validate the proposed evaluation method. The evaluation metrics included task completion time, percentage correct, fixation frequency, fixation duration, and subjective usability ratings. The results demonstrated that the proposed framework (weighting the contribution of each linguistic pattern to usability by multiple regression analysis) improved prediction accuracy of usability more than the original method with equal weight and may also be applicable to more complicated displays.