
Great Idea: Empirical User Experience Design Through Action Costs  - mingyeow
http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/empirical-user-experience-design-through-action-costs
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San
Let's not reinvent the wheel and use a framework that has been developed since
the seventies. Anderson's ACT-R framework is based on cognitive theories and
models, and can deliver pretty accurate results.

For a more user-friendly tool, take a look at CogTool. You can build or import
a prototype UI, create tasks (sets of actions: click this, type that), and let
the software evaluate or automatically optimize the interface. Last time I
checked they used ACT-R as the cognitive engine, so the results should be
accurate.

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mingyeow
i think these are still pretty complicated. i could understand russel's link
in 2 minutes, but I still do not know how to use ACT-R and cogtool.

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San
Sure his method sounds easy, but are the results actually worth anything? It
looks like an over-simplified version of ACT-R, with some made-up cost values.
To me, this has no advantages over my gut feeling on usability; it's just that
the numbers add some false sense of reliability.

For actual design decisions, I'd much prefer a method that has developed for
thirty-some years, is based on actual cognitive models and has been
empirically validated.

Besides, it's not that difficult to use. Building and testing your interface
in CogTool would take you about an hour the first time, but it is easy to
learn. You can even import HTML and record your actions. The results are
pretty accurate, and you get automatic interface optimization (e.g. on widget
size, location, types) too boot.

So, the author had a nice idea, but it has been done already. (At least for
the user testing, the accurate results, the "codification" and the books; I
don't know about the consulting company.)

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fsniper
A neat idea, AI rules applied to UI design. But some the suggested costs are a
bit harsh. Of course these are just suggestions. I'm looking for this to be
applied on our daily UI's and compare them.

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mingyeow
actually me too. it seems like a reasonable way to compare UI's

