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Quantitative Usability, Statistics & Six Sigma by Jeff Sauro

Usability

UsabilityScorecard Application

This graph was generated using the Usability Scorecard web-application. The Usability Scorecard takes any combination of raw usability metrics (time on task, satisfaction, completion rates and errors), standardizes them into z-scores, then summarizes them into a composite Single Usability Metric (SUM)

Premium Usability: Getting the Discount without Paying the Price
The Risks of Discounted Qualitative Studies:

Single Usability Metric (SUM)
SUM is a single usability metric that summarize the majority of variation in four common summative usability metrics. The theoretical foundations of the model are explained in the CHI paper. A more detailed practitioners guide was presented at UPA and a case study on using SUM to compare the usability of competing products was presented at HCII

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Statistics
Confidence Intervals
Confidence Intervals show the uncertainty of an estimate and can help Restore Confidence in Usability Results. Calculators are available for Completion Rate (Binomial) or Task Time Confidence Intervals.

Sample Size
The sample size will affect the amount of uncertainty in an estimate. Its calculation depends on the type of data. Calculators are available for Task Completion, Time on Task and Discovering Problems in an Interface. In usability studies, the task context is important for sample sizes.


Six Sigma
How Do You Calculate a Z-Score/ Sigma Level?
Making Sense of Usability Metrics: Usability and Six Sigma
Calculating a Sigma Level from Task Success
What's a Z-Score and Why Use it in Usability Testing?

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Recent Content

Does better usability increase customer loyalty? : January 7, 2010
I examined the relationship between customer loyalty as measured by the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire from several usability tests. I found that perceptions of usability account for about 1/3 of the changes in customer loyalty. Increasing your usability will lead to increased loyalty.

How to conduct a Quantitative Usability Test : December 8, 2009
Do you know how to measure usability? Do you have questions about the benefits and process for conducting a quantitative usability test? I've assembled answers to the 72 most common questions that arise from measuring usability. In this 64 page report I provide concrete examples and plenty of data from a dataset of 120 usability tests, the latest usability research and my decade of experience conducting quantitative usability tests.

Is there a difference in usability data from remote unmoderated tests and lab-based tests? : December 8, 2009
Is it possible to get the same data from lab-based tests by having users test themselves? Unmoderated testing appears to provide a cost effective alternative for gathering a lot more usability data with considerably less effort. Additional time is required to filter invalid data such as unrealistically short task times.

How much is a PhD Worth? : November 5, 2009
Does a full-time PhD pay off in the Usability Profession? The UPA Salary data from 2009 and 2005 is analyzed. It shows that while a PhD may open doors, being out of the work-force for five years is an opportunity cost that is unlikely to made up for.

Do users fail a task and still rate it as easy? : October 9, 2009
Only 14% of users who fail a task rate it at maximum level of satisfaction. In general there is an 80/20 rule of satisfaction and completion rates: 80% of users who rate at the maximum level of satisfaction will pass and 80% of users who rate at the minimum satisfaction level will fail the task.

Usability Statistics Package Expanded : October 1, 2009
Calculate the common statistical tests, sample sizes and use some advanced statistical tests on usability data. This calculator package contains everything the Usability Statistics Package contains, but is expanded to included sample sizes calculators for margins of error and power calculations for comparing two applications. It also contains ANOVA and Chi-Square tests to compare multiple means or completion rates. This package takes the guess work out of what tests to perform on your usability data.

Margins of Error in Usability Tests : August 6, 2009
How many users will complete the task and how long will it take them? If you need to benchmark an interface, then a summative usability test is one way to answer these questions. Summative tests are the gold-standard for usability measurement. But just how precise are the metrics?

Compare 2 Small Sample Completion Rates (Fisher Exact Test) : June 5, 2009
Used for comparing 2 small sample binary completion rates (it uses a statistical test called the Fisher Exact Test)

Task Times in Formative Usability Tests : June 6, 2008
Time-on-task can be used as a valuable diagnosis and comparative tool during formative evaluations.

One Sample Proportion Calculator : May 30, 2008

Sample Size Calculator for a Completion Rate : January 4, 2008
Use this interactive calculator to understand how the sample size changes will affect the confidence interval around a completion rate.