Usability vs. User Experience
It’s common to lump a lot of different aspects around usability, user experience, user interface, and research into the large bucket simply labeled ‘UX’. When measuring the success of a particular interface it’s important to separate usability from the user experience. Here are the metrics associated with both and how you can use them.
Usability Metrics
These metrics help to understand how the user interacts directly with the interface you’ve created.
Effectiveness
A measure of the degree to which a user can successfully achieve their goals in using the system. Are they able to complete their task?
Efficiency
A measure of the degree to which a user can
interact with the system to achieve their goals with minimal time and effort. Measured in time or number of clicks.
Learnability
A measure of the degree to which a user can
learn how to use the system. Measured by the user’s ability and the time it takes to complete the task for the first time.
Memorability
A measure of the degree to which a user can remember how to use the system after taking a break and then returning to it. Measured by the user’s ability and the time it takes to complete the task after a hiatus.
Error Rate
A measure of the degree to which the interaction is smooth or involves making mistakes along the way toward completing the task. Measure in the number of incorrect actions, severity of those actions, and the ability to recover from them.
Satisfaction
A measure of the pleasure of use. Measured by A user’s perceived level of satisfaction from using the system.
User Experience Metrics
These metrics help you to understand the implications and emotions your user feels when using the interface you’ve created.
Sensual
This is the sensory engagement of the user with the system. It’s analyzed by describing how the user interacts with the user interface on a sensory level – sight, touch, sound, etc. – and what design elements in the user interface trigger the user’s sensory engagement.
Emotional
This is the emergent feelings being fostered through the interaction between the user and the system. It’s analyzed by describing how design elements in the user interface trigger user’s feelings and how these feelings change dynamically throughout the flow of the interaction.
Social
This is the construction of shared meaning through interaction in a social context. It’s analyzed by describing the social context in which the user interacts with the system and how
interacting with the system influences the user’s social context.
Contextual
This is the unique context of interaction in time, place, and situation. It’s analyzed by describing the specific situation in which the interaction happens – who, where, when, with whom, with what device, etc. – and how this situation affects the interaction. Also describe how the context changes over time and how the interaction might aff ect the context.
Compositional/Holistic
This is connecting the parts of the interaction into a bigger picture of experience. It’s analyze by describing how the different design elements in the user interface together bring about an overall experience through the flow of the interaction, beyond trying to achieve a certain goal.
Use These Icons
I created this free icon pack to compliment your usability reports. Please feel free to use this wherever you’d like!
