Usability evaluation support apparatus and method

• US 7,152,016 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2003
• Issued: 12/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Shibuta, Kazuo, Hirose, Yoshitsugu, Yuzawa, Hideto, Tanaka, Toru, Sakai, Katsura, Ohyama, Tsutomu, Mihira, Toshie
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoff, Marc S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barbee, Manuel L.
• Application Number:
  US10/360,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20040075685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,408 Days
• Field of Search: 702/182, 702/183
• US Class Current: 702/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

There is disclosed an apparatus for supporting evaluation of usability in consideration of situations particular to each business and ISO evaluation standards. The usability evaluation support apparatus uses an instrument including a display portion for displaying information, and supports the evaluation of usability in achieving a given task. During achievement of the task, a control unit acquires information of an operation log related to an operation performed by a user, and divides an effectiveness index associated with achievement of the task, efficiency index associated with efficiency for the achievement, and satisfaction index associated with subjective satisfaction of a task achiever for each predefined subtask. The unit evaluates the indexes by a statistical calculation using measurement results of a plurality of measurement items including the information of the operation log for each subtask.

Claims

1. An apparatus which uses an instrument comprising a display unit for displaying information to support evaluation of usability in a given task, the apparatus comprising:

an acquiring part that acquires information of an operation log related to an operation performed by a user in achieving the task; and

an index evaluation part that evaluates individually an effectiveness index, efficiency index, and satisfaction index related to achieving a target of the task,

wherein the index evaluation part uses measurement results of a plurality of measurement items including the operation log information to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes,

divides the measurement results concerning performance of each subtask included as an element of the task, and

uses the divided measurement results to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes for each subtask.

2. The usability evaluation support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a biometric data acquiring part that acquires biometric data of the user while the user performs the task,

wherein the index evaluation part uses the measurement results of the plurality of measurement items including the operation log information and the biometric data to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes for each subtask.

3. The usability evaluation support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

satisfaction evaluation acquiring part that acquires a satisfaction evaluation of the user concerning the task,

wherein the index evaluation part uses the measurement results of the plurality of measurement items including the satisfaction evaluation to evaluate individually the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes for each subtask.

4. An apparatus which uses an instrument including a display unit for displaying information to support evaluation of usability for achieving a given task, the apparatus comprising:

an acquiring part that acquires information of an operation log related to an operation performed by a user in achieving the task; and

an evaluating part that uses measurement results of a plurality of measurement items including the information of the operation log to evaluate individually an effectiveness index, an efficiency index, and a satisfaction index in achieving a subtask for each subtask of the task.

5. A method for using an instrument comprising a display unit for displaying information to support evaluation of usability for a given task, the method comprising:

a step of acquiring information of an operation log related to an operation performed by a user in achieving the task; and

an index evaluation step of evaluating individually an effectiveness index related to accuracy and completeness in achieving a target of the task, an efficiency index related to a resource consumed in association with the accuracy and completeness in achieving the target of the task, and a satisfaction index related to user satisfaction in achieving the target of the task,

wherein the index evaluation step comprises the steps of;

using measurement results of a plurality of measurement items including the operation log information to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes;

dividing the measurement results concerning the achievement of a subtask for each subtask included as a constituting element in the task; and

using the divided measurement results to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes for each subtask.

6. A usability evaluation support program stored in a computer readable medium for enabling a computer to use an instrument including a display unit for displaying information and to execute processing supporting evaluation of usability in achieving a given task, the program causing the computer to execute:

a procedure of acquiring information of an operation log related to an operation performed by a user in achieving the task;

a procedure of using measurements of a plurality of measurement items including information of an operation log to individually evaluate an effectiveness index related to accuracy and completeness in achieving a target of the task, an efficiency index related to a resource consumed in association with the accuracy and completeness in achieving the target of the task, and a satisfaction index related to user satisfaction in achieving the target of the task;

a procedure of dividing the measurement results concerning the achievement of a subtask for each subtask included as a constituting element in the task; and

a procedure of using the divided measurement results to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction indexes for each subtask.