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Usability

People ignore design that ignores people.

—Frank Chimero

Usability is concerned with how easy it is for the user to accomplish a desired task and the kind of user support that the system provides. Over the years, a focus on usability has shown itself to be one of the cheapest and easiest ways to improve a system’s quality (or more precisely, the user’s perception of quality) and hence end-user satisfaction.

Usability comprises the following areas:

  • Learning system features. If the user is unfamiliar with a particular system or a particular aspect of it, what can the system do to make the task of learning easier? This might include providing help features.

  • Using a system efficiently. What can the system do to make the user more efficient ...

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