User Interface Evaluation Methods

There are many formal methods for user interface evaluation in the Uteratnre. A selection of some of the more common approaches which are snitable for HIT are set ont below. 

As far as software is concerned, the interactive nature of the solution process naturally sets its own requirements (Hakanen, 2006). First of all, a good graphical user-interface (GUI) is needed in order to enable the interaction between the DM and the method. In addition, visualizations of the solutions obtained must be available for the DM to compare and evaluate the solutions generated. With interactive methods, more than three objective functions can easily be considered, which sets more requirements on the visualization when compared to, e.g., visualizing the Pareto optimal set for bi-objective problems. 

Technology-based AAC systems have taken two forms hardware designed specifically for this application and software that runs on mass market computer hardware. Three basic components comprise AAC systems. These are the language representation method (including acceleration techniques), the user interface, and the outputs. Generally, a multidisciplinary team evaluates the current and projected skills and needs of the individual, determines the most effective language representation method(s) and physical access technique (s), and then selects a system with characteristics that are a good match. 

We performed an evaluation to investigate the usability and utility of the three key features of the ICEbox user interface introducing devices to the home network, securing the home network, and monitoring the home network. Our goal with this smdy was to get a sense of the overall usability and utility of our approach, rather than to perform an in-depth usability analysis and task metrics. The first task compared ICEbox device introduction with a common method for manual setup of devices on the home network. The second task examined securing the home network. The third explored the usability and utility of the visual interface and monitoring features the ICEbox. 

To prove our hypothesis that two-handed interaction and speech is adopted quite easily and quickly by users, we performed a usability study. Usability evaluation studies seem to be a preferred strategy for the evaluation of multimodal interfaces because it allows the investigation of how users adopt and interact with multimodal technology providing valuable information about the general usability and the user experience. Several types of user testing have been conducted for multimodal interfaces in both usability laboratories and in the field revealing user preferences for interaction modalities based on factors such as acceptance in different social contexts, noisy and mobile environments [18]. An overview on new forms of usability evaluation methods for multimodal interfaces is presented in [4]. 

After descriptors have been derived, CODESSA has several advanced methods for determining correlations between descriptors and the input experimental data (draining set ). These include five types of regression analysis, a principal components analysis (PCA) treatment, four different types of multivariate analysis, and a unique heuristic method (CODESSA s default approach). These methods help the user to choose significant descriptors, determine the relationships between sets of descriptors, and evaluate the statistical significance of particular models. An intuitive and powerful graphical user interface (GUI) is used for file and information management, as well as to display the results of the correlation searches. 

Research users need full access to the functional elements of the spectrometer system and require the most efficient and flexible tools for MR sequence and application development. If the measurement methods delivered with the software do not adequately address the specific investigational requirements of a research team, modem NMR software is an open architecture for implementing new and more sophisticated functionality, with full direct access to all hardware controlling parameters. After evaluation, the new functionality can be developed with the help of toolbox functions that allow rapid prototyping and final builds, to enable the new sequence to be executed by non-experienced personnel and then used in routine applications. These toolboxes provide application oriented definitions and connect to standard mechanisms and routine interfaces, such as the geometry editor, configuration parameters or spectrometer adjustments. 

Abstract. Text entry research has received a lot of attention in recent years because of the need for more effective and usable entry methods on mobile devices. Technical limitations such as screen size have led to the design of entry interfaces that mentally load the user in order to obtain better performances. Current evaluation methodologies of these interfaces focus on text entry speed and error rate but don t pay enough attention to tbe mental load. In this paper, we concentrate on the evaluation of the load s effect on text entry process and we present a comparative evaluation of three mobile text entry methods with and without the application of a secondary task. We also define a performance measure that takes into account the mental load characteristic for a given text entry interface. 

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