R – Why are usability evaluation methods so rarely employed

testingusabilityuser interfaceuser-experience

There are many usability evaluation techniques that have been developed over the history of software development. But it seems to me that they are rarely used in practice.

Why aren't usability evaluation tools and methods actually used much?

Or are they used more than I've been led to believe?

Best Answer

They are rare, HCI is a specialist area in IT. I know next to nothing about it, but a friend of mine was a HCI engineer and she could recite reams of data about the topic, show websites, groups, academic papers, etc.

HCI is still an area that (undeservedly) gets little attention, probably because its seen as less important to the business of selling software - shrinkwrapped software is sold on marketing claims, not actual usability of it, so there is little incentive for the people who pay for the software development to pay for HCI too.

If you want to learn more (and its good you should encourage its use - I've used too many crappy interfaces, and though I try to develop better I often don't get the chance to really improve things for my users), try this website/book.