Inspection Methods for Usability Evaluation

Product usability can affect product success; therefore,conducting usability inspections to inspect product design flaws and allow them to be corrected in the early stage of a product development cycle is crucial. This chapter provides an overview of three classical usability inspection methods and their applications: heuristic evaluation,cognitive walkthrough,and pluralistic walkthrough. Several established usability design principles are also presented,allowing practitioners to understand how they can be applied for inspecting and improving product usability. Moreover,two real-life case studies that provide an in-depth analysis of the inspection methods are included. Other less common usability inspection methods,including persona-based inspection,feature inspection,action analysis,and consistency inspection,are also summarized. In sum,product usability is an important aspect of user–product interaction,which can be enhanced through usability inspections.