Issue
Article
Vol.30 No.2, April 1998
Article
Issue
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.2, April 1998 |
Article |
Issue |
This report summarizes the activities of the Usability Engineering 2: Measurement and Methods (UE2) Symposium held March 3, 1997 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. The workshop was co-sponsored by NIST's Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) and by the Human- Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL) of the University of Maryland. Over 145 people attended a comprehensive technical program that included parallel tracks for managers, experts and novices.
UE2's purpose remained the same as the first symposium held in 1996: it once again brought together industry and government to exchange information and strategies for achieving effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in computer-based government systems. New for 1997 was a special emphasis on measurement and methods along with a parallel track format to address the varying attendee profiles such as job function and level of expertise.
The symposium continues to focus on incorporating usability engineering into the government arena and extends the work from last year's symposium (see [1].) The need to incorporate UE techniques into the government arena was identified and expanded upon during several previous gatherings of human-computer interaction (HCI) professionals. Past SIGCHI Bulletin issues ([2], [3]) contain reports on previous gatherings.
The National Performance Review has the explicit objective of improving the performance of US Government agencies. We believe every government agency's peformance depends on the usability of the computerized systems that support that agency's work. Usability engineering provides practical techniques for increasing productivity and decreasing costs -- two primary concerns of those procuring and building government systems. The need to specify and verify usability requirements is critical in new government systems and just as applicable in the many current and planned legacy updates. The field of usability egineering also offers ways to evaluate the mandated integration of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products and evaluation of the COTS products as stand-alone tools. Procurers and builders of government systems are faced with rapidly designing and developing systems that must meet the public demand for digitized information, industry's demand for critical operation information, and workers' demands for systems that enable them to disseminate and process various information requests. It is critical that procurers and builders of government systems employ techniques that enable the development of usable governmet systems in order to maximize the return on taxpayer's dollars that fund the design and development of these systems. Economics and productivity play major roles in the exploitation of technology. As Dr. H. Rex Hartson stated in the 1996 symposium executive overview:
"We expect technology to transform the American economy into the most productive in the world. The single most significant factor in manifesting this promised productivity from the technology is usability."
The organizers consist of the authors of this report.
The symposium covered the following topics:
Towards User-Centered Software Engineering
Steve Cross, Director, Software Engineering Institute
Designing Information Abundant Web Sites
Ben Shneiderman, Head, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland
Usability Testing Web Sites at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Michael Levi, BLS
Re-Engineering User Interfaces for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice
Anne Rose, University of Maryland
Executive Overview: Usability Engineering and the Bottom Line
Laura L. Downey, NIST
Making Sense of HCI Standards and Guidelines
Elizabeth Buie, Computer Sciences Corporation
Usability in the RFP: Specifying Product and Process
Elizabeth Buie, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Bill Hefley, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
International Standards and European Legislation
Nigel Bevan, National Physical Laboratory
Ergonomics Legislation in Italy and Its Impact on Government Spending for Software Usability
Anna Giannetti, SOGEI
Achieving Usability Through User-Centered Design
Nigel Bevan, National Physical Laboratory
Usability Considerations in the Re-Engineering of Legacy Systems
Charlie Kreitzberg, Cognetics Corporation
Making Sense of HCI Standards and Guidelines
Elizabeth Buie, Computer Sciences Corporation
Development and Use of Guidelines at NASA's GSFC
Dana Uehling, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Increasing the Cost Effectiveness of Your User Interaction Development Process
Debby Hix, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Comparing Usability Techniques: Expert Review vs. Usability Testing
Ginny Redish, Redish & Associates, Inc.
Evaluating Collaborative Tools
Jane Mosier, MITRE
Meeting the Common Needs of Disabled Users and Nomadic Users
Susan A. Brummel, General Services Administration (GSA) and Terri Youngblood, Department of Education
Usability Testing Equipment Demo
Dick Horst, UserWorks, Inc. and Norm Willcox Associates, Inc., Norm Wilcox, Ted Scostak, TRC
Challenges in Measurement and Evaluation
Sharon J. Laskowski, NIST, Donna Cuomo, MITRE, Nigel Bevan, NPL, Bill Hefley, CMU
The number of attendees rose 28% from last year (116 vs. 148). They included representatives from industry, government, academia, research institutes, and federally funded research and development corporations. We were especially pleased that several high-ranking government information technologists attended. One of our goals was to increase the number of decision-makers and that goal was met. All tracks were well attended including the managerial track. For comparison purposes, the attendee breakdown is listed for both the 1996 and 1997 symposiums:
Table 1: Attendees
| 1996 | 1997 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| attendees | 116 | 148 | +31 (+28%) |
| industry | 48 (42%) | 38 (26%) | -10 (-16%) |
| government | 51 (44%) | 93 (63%) | +42 (+19%) |
| NIST | 19 (16%) | 31 (21%) | +12 (+5%) |
| non-NIST gov. | 32 (28%) | 62 (42%) | +30 (+14%) |
| academia | 9 (8%) | 9 (6%) | 0 (- 2%) |
| other | 8 (7%) | 8 (5%) | 0 (- 2%) |
Another important goal set after last year's symposium was to increase government participation especially that of non-NIST government personnel. That goal was also met as evidenced by a raw increase from 32 to 62 and an overall percentage increase from 28% of 1996 attendees to 42% of 1997 attendees. The one surprising demographic factor observed by the program committee was the decrease in industry attendance although we can attribute some of the decrease to the publicity efforts which heavily focused on attracting government personnel. Additionally, the CHI conference was early this year and several industry people informed us that they had to choose between the two meetings due to budget and time constraints.
Similar to last year, we received much positive feedback along with suggestions for improvements and direction. Feedback was gathered via email, conversations with speakers and organizers, and symposium feedback sheets (52/148 returned). A large majority of attendees indicated the need/desire for continuation of the symposium activities. General constructive feedback and suggestions for future symposia included:
The organizers are currently putting together a post-symposium publication, which is scheduled for release sometime in Fall 1997. In order to reach a wide audience and to leverage the expertise of the Usability Professional's Association (UPA), NIST and UPA plan to hold a special "government day" in conjunction with the 1998 UPA annual meeting which will be held in Washington, D.C. The government day will immediately precede the UPA conference.
We invite and welcome participation in our activities. Anyone interested in focusing on usability in the government arena may send email to laura.downey@nist.gov (+1-301-975-4659) or sharon.laskowski@nist.gov (+1-301-975-4535) for more information.
1. Laura L. Downey, Sharon J. Laskowski, Elizabeth A. Buie, H. Rex Hartson, Usability Engineering: Industry-Government Collaboration for System Effectiveness and Efficiency, SIGCHI Bulletin, Vol. 26 No. 4, October 1996, pp 66-7.
2. Ira Winkler and Elizabeth Buie, HCI Challenges in Government Contracting, SIGCHI Bulletin, Vol. 25 No. 4, October 1995, pp 35-7.
3. HCI Challenges in Government Contracting, Elizabeth Buie and Ira Winkler, SIGCHI Bulletin, Vol. 24 No. 4, October 1994, pp. 49-50.
Laura L. Downey, chair of the symposium, is a computer scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Laura's research focus is on human-computer interaction with a special emphasis on usability engineering. Currently she is conducting a system evaluation of an information retrieval prototype, and investigating rapid, remote, and automatic methods for evaluating web site usability.
Laura L. Downey
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Information Access and User Interfaces Division
Building 225, Room A216
Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA
+1-301-975-4659
laura.downey@nist.gov
Dr. Sharon J. Laskowski is a computer scientist and group leader of the Visualization and Virtual Reality Group in the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology where she is currently investigating the application of visualization techniques to information retrieval and navigation. She has also participated in research and prototyping efforts focusing on usability and searching of World Wide Web-based virtual libraries. Previously, she conducted research and development in text analysis, information fusion, and plan recognition at the Artificial Intelligence Center of the MITRE Corporation. Dr. Laskowski received her PhD in computer science from Yale University.
Dr. Sharon J. Laskowski
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Information Access and User Interfaces Division
Building 225, Room A216
Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA
+1-301-975-4535
sharon.laskowski@nist.gov
Elizabeth Buie is a Senior Principal Engineer with Computer Sciences Corporation's System Sciences Division in Laurel, Maryland, where she focuses on HCI quality in spacecraft flight operations systems at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She has worked on projects for a variety of civilian government agencies in the US and Europe. Elizabeth chairs CSC's company-wide SIG on HCI and is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's HCI Standards Committee. She has a Master of Science in Mathematics from North Carolina State University and a Master of Arts in Human Development from the University of Maryland.
Elizabeth Buie
Computer Sciences Corporation
1100 West Street
Laurel, MD 20707 USA
ebuie@csc.com
+1-301-497-2524 phone
Bill Hefley teaches in the Information and Decision Systems program in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a member of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and a Visiting Scientist at the Software Engineering Institute. His twenty-plus years of experience is in systems and software engineering, human-computer interaction, and project management. His research and consulting efforts currently focus on organizational and process improvement, focusing on the engineering workforce and both software and usability process improvement.
William E. Hefley, CCP, CDP
Social and Decision Sciences
PH-208G
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA
hefley@andrew.cmu.edu
+1-412-268-3238
Issue |
Article |
Vol.30 No.2, April 1998 |
Article |
Issue |