Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel augmentation to the current heuristic usability evaluation methodology. The SPAR-H human reliability analysis method was developed for categorizing human performance in nuclear power plants. Despite the specialized use of SPAR-H for safety critical scenarios, the method also holds promise for use in commercial off-the-shelf software usability evaluations. The SPAR-H method shares task analysis underpinnings with human-computer interaction, and it can be easily adapted to incorporate usability heuristics as performance shaping factors. By assigning probabilistic modifiers to heuristics, it is possible to arrive at the usability error probability (UEP). This UEP is not a literal probability of error but nonetheless provides a quantitative basis to heuristic evaluation. When combined with a consequence matrix for usability errors, this method affords ready prioritization of usability issues.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 911609
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-05-00108
TRN: US0800040
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- Resource Type:
- Conference
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Human Computer Interaction International 2005,Las Vegas, NV,07/25/2005,07/28/2005
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; COMPUTERS; EVALUATION; NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS; PERFORMANCE; PROBABILITY; RELIABILITY; SAFETY; human performance; human reliability analysis
Citation Formats
Boring, Ronald L, and Gertman, David I. Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis. United States: N. p., 2005.
Web.
Boring, Ronald L, & Gertman, David I. Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis. United States.
Boring, Ronald L, and Gertman, David I. 2005.
"Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/911609.
@article{osti_911609,
title = {Advancing Usability Evaluation through Human Reliability Analysis},
author = {Boring, Ronald L and Gertman, David I},
abstractNote = {This paper introduces a novel augmentation to the current heuristic usability evaluation methodology. The SPAR-H human reliability analysis method was developed for categorizing human performance in nuclear power plants. Despite the specialized use of SPAR-H for safety critical scenarios, the method also holds promise for use in commercial off-the-shelf software usability evaluations. The SPAR-H method shares task analysis underpinnings with human-computer interaction, and it can be easily adapted to incorporate usability heuristics as performance shaping factors. By assigning probabilistic modifiers to heuristics, it is possible to arrive at the usability error probability (UEP). This UEP is not a literal probability of error but nonetheless provides a quantitative basis to heuristic evaluation. When combined with a consequence matrix for usability errors, this method affords ready prioritization of usability issues.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/911609},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005},
month = {Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005}
}