Dear Usability TG Members,
First many, many thanks to Pam Savage for her leadership, her amazing hard work, and her continued support. Though Pam is stepping down as TG Chair she is kindly providing me insights navigating the TG Chair role. I hope this message finds you well. As we begin the new year, one of our initial tasks is to submit two updated descriptions of our Usability and Systems Evaluation TG.
1. A short description (20 to 40 words) 2. A fuller description (80 to 175 words)
Option 1A: Really, truly short at 25 words
Usability Tech Group evaluates software and hardware designs with mock-ups and testing during development, interested in tools, techniques, best practices, and lessons learned.
Option 1B: 40 words
The Usability Technical Group evaluates design concepts for software and hardware through early evaluations and prototyping. Testing is conducted during system development processes. Our TG is keen to learn about the tools and techniques used, best practices, and lessons learned.
Option 2: Fuller Description at 192 words - this was developed, and submitted after circulation amongst this TG members (Thank you, Pam Savage)
We will need to shorten it.
The USABILITY TEST AND SYSTEM EVALUATION TECHNICAL GROUP consists of people interested in all aspects of human factors and ergonomics as applied to assessing the usability, usefulness, and utility of designs and design concepts whether they are software, hardware, or a combination of the two. Evaluation is a core skill for all human factors, usability, and user experience professionals and includes measuring performance, ease of use, cognitive workload, situational awareness, safety, and user acceptance. Early evaluation is conducted using low-fidelity mock-ups and wireframes with fidelity increasing as prototypes become available.
As systems become available, the focus moves to operational usage and assessment at intervals thereafter during their operational life. Testing can be formative, summative, and comparative as well as iterative. It is conducted during waterfall, agile, agile-waterfall hybrid, and other lesser-known program management and system development processes. Of particular interest to this technical group are the tools, techniques, and methodologies applied during usability testing and system evaluation as well as the measures and metrics used, return on investment experienced, practical implications of results, best practices, impact on design, and the user experience, and lessons learned by those conducting and leading these efforts.
Please provide any feedback to your TG Chair, by February 12th. So, we can post the definitive version before the due date of February 19th.
Cheers,
Amrita Maguire
Your 2024 TG Leadership Team: Jerry Burpee, Amrita Maguire, and Jeremiah Still
------------------------------
Amrita Maguire, AUXP, UXC
TG Chair - USETG
Distinguished Member Technical Staff
Dell Technologies | Experience Design Group
------------------------------