Authors:
Simone Vasconçelos Silva
1
and
Daniel I. De Souza
2
Affiliations:
1
North Fluminense State University, Brazil
;
2
Fluminense Federal and North Fluminense State Universities;University of Florida, United States
Keyword(s):
Quality, usability of software products, custom-made software products.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Business and Social Applications
;
Communication and Software Infrastructure
;
e-Business
;
e-Commerce and e-Business: B2B and B2C
;
e-Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Global Communication Information Systems and Services
;
Information and Systems Security
;
Telecommunications
Abstract:
In this work, we will develop a methodology based on the quality of the interaction between users and custom-made software products, aiming at the determination of the degree of users’ satisfaction, that is, the usability. This approach is divided into four parts: First we will define the criterions to be used in the evaluation of the quality of software products. After these criterions have been chosen, an approach will be developed to classify them by their level of importance related to a selected area of application. The level of importance of a usability criterion will vary depending on the area of application. As a next step, a second approach will be introduced to classify usability criterions by the quality level presented by a certain software product utilized in a selected area. This classification is based on the users’ opinion about the quality level a certain usability criterion related to the above software product would have. Finally a third and final approach will be
set up to evaluate the usability of software products according to users’ judgment. It combines the first method with the second method in such a way as to define a usability factor that will be used to evaluate the quality of the selected software product. This proposed methodology can be applied to a finished software product to evaluate its usability according to users’ judgment, and can be also applied during the development of the product to ensure it will have the desired usability attributes. In a future work, we will show an application of this methodology in the evaluation of the usability of software products in Brazil.
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