Collaborative critique method finds user interface problems including errors
The Collaborative Critique: An Inspection Method for Expert Evaluation of User Interfaces
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
People often find it hard to use complex computer systems, especially when errors happen. The authors created a way called collaborative critique to check how well a system works as a helpful partner to the user. This method walks through each step of using the system and asks questions about how well the system supports the user, focusing on situations when errors occur. They tested the method in a lab and found it could spot almost all problems users had, including serious errors.
What this means in practice
- •For interface designers: Evaluate interface designs for how well they support users, especially during errors, to reduce cognitive and physical effort.
- •For software quality assurance teams: Use the collaborative critique method to identify and prioritize user interface problems in complex systems during testing phases.
Authors
Wendy Lucas, Tamara Babaian
Abstract
The development of the collaborative critique (CC) usability inspection method was driven by the need for systems, ranging from the simple to the complex, to lessen the workload on their users by being better collaborative partners. In the collaborative view of system-user interaction, the role of the system is expanded to that of a partner that must help its users achieve their goals. This perspective shifts the dynamic from focusing on the user's ability to make effective and efficient use of the system to the system's usefulness within a given task, user, and interaction context, thereby reducing the user's cognitive and physical efforts. The CC method consists of a walkthrough evaluation in which the questions answered at each step of the interaction assess the collaborative strength of the system. This method is further distinguished by the inclusion of questions that access the behavior of the system in error situations, which are known to be particularly burdensome to users of complex systems. In this paper, we provide a detailed description of the CC method and its application and demonstrate its usefulness in evaluating an interface. The results of a laboratory evaluation show that the method performed well in identifying the problems experienced by users across all severity levels and predicted almost all of the problems associated with error situations.