Usability engineering - Usability engineering is a process for defining, measuring, and thereby improving, the usability of products. Usability engineering evolved because of a need to move usability from the realm of personal opinion to an attribute that is quantifiable like other engineering attributes. The basic usability engineering process has seven steps (Good, Spine, Whiteside, and George, 1986)

  1. Define measurable usability attributes.
  2. Set the quantitative levels of desired usability for each attribute. Together, an attribute and a desired level constitute a usability goal.
  3. Test the product against the usability goals. If you meet your goals, no further design is needed.
  4. If further design work is needed, analyze the problems that emerge.
  5. Analyze the impact of possible design solutions.
  6. Incorporate user-derived feedback in product design.
  7. Return to Step 3 to repeat the test, analysis, and design cycle.

Usability engineering is flexible in both its application and methodology. It can be applied to new versions of existing products, new products which will be entering a market against established competitors, or to entirely new and innovative products. Usability engineering does not specify particular methods for defining goals, testing products, or incorporating user-derived feedback into the development process. Usability engineers can choose the methods that fit best into their development environments and budgets. The sine qua non of usability engineering is that it provides quantitative results that can be compared to explicit usability goals.