Couplings among HCI Design Parmeters cause Poor Usability

This paper presents a formal method for usability analysis. It can be used for design of products as well software. Functional requirements (FRs) and design parameters (DPs) are first stated. Then a conversion matrix from FRs to DPs is constructed. This matrix, referred to as “Design Matrix” is analyzed with respect to its properties. A diagonal matrix will have few usability problems, whereas a coupled design will have many usability problems. Usability may hence be improved by decoupling the matrix. This can be done by: 1. Selecting other design parameters. 2. “Reengineering” the problem by selecting other functional requirements and 3. Making sure that only one abstraction level at a time is addressed during the design of the interface.