The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design

by Deborah J. Mayhew

A commitment to usability in user interface design and development offers enormous benefits, including greater user productivity, more competitive products, lower support costs, and a more efficient development process. But what does it mean to be committed to usability? Inside, a twenty-year expert answers this question in full, presenting the techniques of Usability Engineering as a series of product lifecycle tasks that result directly in easier-to-learn, easier-to-use software. You'll learn to perform a complete requirements analysis and then incorporate the resulting goals and constraints in a highly structured, iterative design and development process. This process doesn't end with installation but instead begins anew with the collection of user feedback that will guide further development. Also covered are organizational issues related to the implementation of Usability Engineering, including cost justification, project planning, and organizational structures.

* Unites all current UE techniques in a single, authoritative resource, presenting a coherent lifecycle process in which each clearly defined task leads directly the next.
* Teaches concrete, immediately usable skills to practitioners in all kinds of product development organizations-from internal departments to commercial developers to consultants.
* Contains examples of actual software development projects and the ways in which they have benefited from Usability Engineering.
* Deals in specifics, not generalities-provides detailed templates and instructions for every phase of the Usability Engineering lifecycle.
* Pays special attention to Web site development and explains how Usability Engineering principles can be applied to the development of any interactive product.

Genres: Design, Usability, Reference, Business

560 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 1999

Reviews

[James Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The famous process maps are just the beginning, this is a true guide to full integration of UX research across your entire pipeline! A must have resource for any usability engineer, human-computer interaction analyst, or user testing guru. Lots of practical advice for structuring usability work, including user testing throughout the entire software engineering lifecycle. Timeless strategies, templates and workflows that integrate well with the ever changing world of software development. This book sits nicely alongside newer scholarship in agile usability work, and I wouldn't leave this out of the collection.

[Emir · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another monolith of a book albeit not as bad as Boiko's Content Management Bible. The author approaches the subject form the Software Development Lifecycle and engineering perspective and explains a process that is perhaps too detailed and involved for real-world constraints but nonetheless has solid strong foundations. The most valuable part of this book are case studies such as interview forms, requirements analysis, and reports which are presented as sample documents. I have not gotten into cost and savings estimates at all but this is good reference book for implementing usability engineering projects. This was a required read in Usability I class.

[Christophe Addinquy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ma note de lecture complète en français ici

[Manickam]

nothing!

[Mamoon Raza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome