Usability and user experience surveys

Draft

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Introduction

According to Perlman (2009), “Questionnaires have long been used to evaluate user interfaces (Root & Draper, 1983). Questionnaires have also long been used in electronic form (Perlman, 1985). For a handful of questionnaires specifically designed to assess aspects of usability, the validity and/or reliability have been established, including some in the [table below].” (retrieved 20:57, 14 March 2011 (CET))

List of web usability questionnaires

We didn't find (yet) any specific web usability questionnaires, see below for generic usability survey instruments and that can be adapted to specific websites. Often, it is good enough to replace the word "system" by "web site" :)

List of usability and user experience questionnaires

User Interface Usability Evaluation with Web-Based Questionnaires

Author: Gary Perlman (2009)

Available through the User Interface Usability Evaluation with Web-Based Questionnaires page, either as online interface or as a a set of Perl scripts that you can install in your own server. (also from: online service at hcbib.org)

The script creates a customizable Web-based perl CGI script that allows to administer and to collect data according to a few "standard" user interface evaluation questionnaire forms. The questionnaires may be applied to web sites, but also to other software.

Online service: http://hcibib.org/perlman/question.cgi. It will send results by email.

Before you just click on the above link or the links below you should go to the original page at hcibib, scroll down and configure the questionnaire, i.e.:

• customize system name, administrator email, etc.
• customize rating scale such as number of points, labels, ...
• customize number of open-ended positive/negative comments requested
• Select the questionnaire

For your information, we below reproduce the table from the original keeping the original links....

Acronym	Instrument	Reference	Institution	Example
QUIS	Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction	Chin et al, 1988	Maryland	27 questions
PUEU	Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use	Davis, 1989	IBM	12 questions
NAU	Nielsen's Attributes of Usability	Nielsen, 1993	Bellcore	5 attributes
NHE	Nielsen's Heuristic Evaluation	Nielsen, 1993	Bellcore	10 heuristics
CSUQ	Computer System Usability Questionnaire	Lewis, 1995	IBM	19 questions
ASQ	After Scenario Questionnaire	Lewis, 1995	IBM	3 questions
PHUE	Practical Heuristics for Usability Evaluation	Perlman, 1997	OSU	13 heuristics
PUTQ	Purdue Usability Testing Questionnaire	Lin et al, 1997	Purdue	100 questions
USE	USE Questionnaire	Lund, 2001	Sapient	30 questions

This page seems to be the best starting point for exploring well known web-based usability evaluation questionnaires.

Purdue Usability Testing Questionnaire (PUTQ)

Author: Lin, Han X.; Choong, Yee-Yin and Salvendy, Gavriel (1997). A Proposed Index of Usability: A Method for Comparing the Relative Usability of Different Software Systems, Behaviour and Information Technology 16 n.4/5 p.267-278

The list is available through http://hcibib.org. Both the questionnaire and answer sheets are reproducible without permission provided that copyright is reproduced.

Measuring Usability with the USE Questionnaire

Author: Arnold M. Lund, Measuring Usability with the USE Questionnaire, STC Usability SIG Newsletter, orginally published in the October 2001 issue (Vol 8, No. 2)

Available: Measuring Usability with the USE Questionnaire

The questionnaire was developed over time and it started out with a large pool of items. “The questionnaires were constructed as seven-point Likert rating scales. Users were asked to rate agreement with the statements, raging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Various forms of the questionnaires were used to evaluate user attitudes towards a variety of consumer products. Factor analyses following each study suggested that users were evaluating the products primarily using three dimensions, Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of Use.”

The questionnaires were constructed as seven-point Likert rating scales, e.g. from -3 (totally disagree) to +3 (totally agree)

Usefulness

It helps me be more effective.

It helps me be more productive.

It is useful.

It gives me more control over the activities in my life.

It makes the things I want to accomplish easier to get done.

It saves me time when I use it.

It meets my needs.

It does everything I would expect it to do.

Ease of Use

It is easy to use.

It is simple to use.

It is user friendly.

It requires the fewest steps possible to accomplish what I want to do with it.

It is flexible.

Using it is effortless.

I can use it without written instructions.

I don't notice any inconsistencies as I use it.

Both occasional and regular users would like it.

I can recover from mistakes quickly and easily.

I can use it successfully every time.

Ease of Learning

I learned to use it quickly.

I easily remember how to use it.

It is easy to learn to use it.

I quickly became skillful with it.

Satisfaction

I am satisfied with it.

I would recommend it to a friend.

It is fun to use.

It works the way I want it to work.

It is wonderful.

I feel I need to have it.

It is pleasant to use.

System Usability Scale - SUS

One of the most popular questionnaires is the SUS which is short and does seem to yield reliable results across sample sizes (Tullis and Stetson, 2004).

The System Usability Scale (SUS) includes 10 items using a five-point response items (strongly disagree -- strongly agreee):

1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently
2. I found the system unnecessarily complex
3. I thought the system was easy to use
4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system
5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated
6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system
7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly
8. I found the system very cumbersome to use
9. I felt very confident using the system
10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system

Adapted for websites this gives:

1. I think that I would like to use this website frequently
2. I found the website unnecessarily complex
3. I thought the website was easy to use
4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this website
5. I found the various functions in this website were well integrated
6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this website
7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this website very quickly
8. I found the website very cumbersome to use
9. I felt very confident using the website
10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this website

Bibliography

(not complete at all so far ...)

• Root, Robert W. and Draper, Steve (1983). Questionnaires as a Software Evaluation Tool Interface Design 4 -- Analyses of User Inputs / Proceedings of ACM CHI'83 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1983-12-12 p.83-87

• Perlman, Gary (1985). Electronic Surveys, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers v.17 n.2 p.203-205

• Tullis, Tom and Albert, Bill (2008). Measuring the User Experience : Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics p.317 Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. ISBN 0-12-373558-0