Software Usability

Software that is easier and more intuitive to use reduces your business users’ learning curve, improves their productivity and allows them to provide better service to your customers and other personnel.

Of course, just the opposite holds true as well. Who hasn’t encountered clunky software applications with complicated front-ends that seem to hinder progress? If the user interface is not productive and comfortable for the end user, then no matter how good the business functionality is, the user will not be happy or effective for the company.

It is very common for software developers to create software that, as the developer, they can use, but is quite foreign to the typical business customer who will be using it daily.

Would you want an architect to design your house without consulting you?

What if you hired an architect who designed your house with only one bedroom, even though you have a family of six? What if the architect decided your doorways only needed to be 5 feet high? The house would still function. The business need would be met. But, would your overall satisfaction with the end product be high or low?

You want personal attention when you build your house! Business end users want personal attention too and they like useing software that is built for them. They want their software to be a comfortable place to call home.

Usable software

Usability means that those people who use the software application can learn it quickly and use it easily to accomplish the tasks they need to do to be successful in their jobs. Usability enables business users to concentrate on doing their tasks, rather than on learning and using the tools to do their tasks.

A usable product:

Is easy to learn
Is easy to remember
Is efficient to use
Provides quick access to essential information
Provides easy access to additional relevant information
Is enjoyable to use
Is visually pleasing

As your business users depend more and more on software to get their jobs done, usability can be the critical factor that ensures your applications will be used, and used to their fullest extent.

ISO defines usability as "a measure of the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which specified users can achieve goals in a particular environment." This definition is dead on, but how can one measure these attributes?

Surround Technologies can provide you with the experience and insight to not only make your software more usable, but also give you ways to measure its usability.

Focusing on software usability.

Surround Technologies’ Four Tenets of Design and Development are that software should be useful, usable, desirable and feasible. The key to these Tenets are the use of the right tools and a focus on software usability.

Surround Technologies uses seven primary categories to measure the usability of software features and functionality, as listed below:

Learnability	—	How easy is the system to learn?
Memorability	—	Once a particular task is learned, how easily can it be recalled after the user has been away from the system?
Findability	—	Can a user find and get to the information or functionality they need easily and quickly?
Discoverability	—	Good business solutions provide more than just the ability to find information or functionality, they also allow the user the ability to discover other relevant information and functionality.
Time to task	—	How long does it take for a user to perform a particular task?
Task Competition	—	What percentage of those tasks are completed without any errors?
Subjective user satisfaction	—	What is the users’ overall feelings about the system. Is it pleasant to use?

Usability Development Mentoring

Surround Technologies can mentor your development team in how to create usability standards; how to successfully involve business end users in the development process; how to review application usability; and how to develop usability metrics.

Usability Studies

Let Surround Technologies work with your development team and business end users to assess and measure the usability of your applications. We will provide you with a full report giving you specific action items that we guarantee will have a direct impact on your company’s profitability.