IsoMetrics
Development of a software usability instrument
Project summary
IsoMetrics2 is the follow-up of the IsoMetrics1 project. The result
of IsoMetrics1 was a questionnaire (''IsoMetrics'') operationalising the design principles of ISO 9241 Part 10. There are two versions of IsoMetrics, both based on the same items: IsoMetricss (short) supports summative evaluation of software systems, whereas IsoMetricsl (long) is best suited for formative evaluation purposes. The current version of IsoMetrics comprises 75 items operationalising the seven design principles of ISO 9241 Part 10. The IsoMetrics design provides information that can be used within an iterative software development.
In summary, these are
- Scores of the usability dimension to measure the progress of development.
- Concrete information about malfunctions and their user-perceived attributes.
- Mean weight of any user-perceived attribute, given a class of system malfunctions.
The construction of the instrument was documented
in several papers.
The summative version of IsoMetrics showed high reliability of its
subscales and gathered valid information about differences in the
usability comparing different software systems. It was shown that
the formative version of IsoMetrics is a powerful tool, because of
its ability to pinpoint weaknesses within the software.
The aims of IsoMetrics2 are:
- Further validation studies of the IsoMetrics inventory
- The development of a computerised inventory
- Broadening the scope of the inventory in order to evaluate
Multi-Media and Hyper-Media Software Systems.
- Developing and publishing a test manual.
Editor: Günther Gediga,
K.-C. Hamborg