6042 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA.
Hum Factors. 2021 Sep;63(6):956-973. doi: 10.1177/0018720819895098. Epub 2020 Jan 14.
We searched for the application of usability in the literature with a focus on adoption, measurements employed, and demonstrated value. Five human factors domains served as a platform for our reflection, which included the last 20 years.
As usability studies continue to accumulate, there has been only a little past reflection on usability and contributions across a variety of applications. Our research provides a background for general usability, and we target specific usability research subareas within transportation, aging populations, autistic populations, telehealth, and cybersecurity.
"Usability" research was explored across five different domains within human factors. The goal was not to perform an exhaustive review but, rather, sample usability practices within several specific subareas. We focused on answering three questions: How was usability adopted? How was it measured? How was it framed in terms of value?
We found that usability is very domain specific. Usability benchmarking studies and empirical standards are rare. The value associated with improving usability ranged widely-from monetary benefits to saving lives. Thus, researchers are motivated to further improve usability practices. A number of data collection and interpretation challenges still call for solutions.
Findings offer insight into the development of usability, as applied across a variety of subdomains. Our reflection ought to inform future theory development efforts. We are concerned about the lack of established benchmarks, which can help ground data interpretation. Future research should address this gap in the literature. We note that our findings can be used to develop better training materials for future usability researchers.
我们搜索了文献中可用性的应用，重点关注采用情况、采用的测量方法和展示的价值。五个人类因素领域为我们的思考提供了平台，涵盖了过去 20 年的时间。
随着可用性研究的不断积累，过去对各种应用中可用性和贡献的反思很少。我们的研究为一般可用性提供了背景，并且针对特定的可用性研究子领域，包括交通、老龄化人口、自闭症人群、远程医疗和网络安全。
在人类因素的五个不同领域中探索了“可用性”研究。目标不是进行详尽的综述，而是在几个特定的子领域中抽样可用性实践。我们专注于回答三个问题：可用性是如何采用的？它是如何测量的？它在价值方面是如何构建的？
我们发现可用性非常特定于领域。可用性基准测试研究和经验标准很少。与提高可用性相关的价值范围很广，从货币收益到拯救生命。因此，研究人员有动力进一步改进可用性实践。许多数据收集和解释挑战仍需要解决方案。
研究结果提供了跨多个子领域应用的可用性发展的深入了解。我们的反思应该为未来的理论发展提供信息。我们担心缺乏既定的基准，这可能有助于数据解释。未来的研究应该解决文献中的这一差距。我们注意到，我们的发现可以用于开发更好的可用性研究人员培训材料。
