Humane Interface, The: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems

4-1. Quantitative Analyses of Interfaces

He fingered and fingered the computer—it simply amazed Melrose that the machine supposed to take the pain out of all sorts of niggling jobs took more time to perform a simple one than it would have taken Bub to do by hand ten times over.

—Martha Grimes, The Stargazey (a detective novel)

Many qualitative methods and heuristics are useful for analyzing and understanding interface design. These methods form the majority of the content of most books on the subject, including those cited in the references for Shneiderman, Norman, and Mayhew. For example, what an experienced interface designer can learn from passively observing a test of a new interface with a few subjects can be as valuable as what she can ...