Usability of software

 Usability of software 

 
 
 
The fifth chapter of Designing User Experience by David Benyon (2019) tells us about how usability is the foundation of designing a good user experience. The chapter is divided into four main parts: accessibility, usability, acceptability, and design principles. Benyon argues that even though a system looks good, works and is innovative, if it does not meet the criteria of being usable, accessible and accepted, it fails.  
 
First, accessibility. Make the system accessible to a wide range of users. The start of usability is inclusivity. Benyon emphasizes that the system must be able to be used by people with physical disabilities, cognitive impairments, and sensory issues. I think a few examples of these could be; color-blind mode, possibility of increasing font size, text-to-speech, and reduced animations.  
 
Benyon continues; accessibility does not just mean that the system should only accommodate people’s disabilities. It should also take into consideration the context of use. Where the system could be used and with what device the end user could be using.  
 
Second, Usability. Benyon’s definition of usability is “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction”, but he later touches on learnability, error tolerance and memorability. 
 
Third, acceptability. How is the system accepted? Does it meet social, cultural, economic, organizational and legal criteria? 
 
Fourth, the design principles. I will not be defining them here, because the text would be far too long. Visibility, consistency, familiarity, affordance, navigation, control, feedback, recovery, constraints, flexibility, style, conviviality. 
 
Overall the text is very logical and can be quite easily understood without reading the first four chapters. The chapter has a lot of nice visual examples of the things it talks about. It does contain a lot of buzz words, so skimming through the text is quite hard. I believe the topic to be very important for anyone creating anything to be used by humans. Unless you are creating something solely for yourself, you should keep in mind that there is a very wide range of people to be your customers. I decided to choose this book because I just finished a course that was based on this book, and it was an interesting topic. Reading this chapter also broadened my English vocabulary by a bit so I think it ties well with my English studies.  
 
Lastly, I will add Benyon’s own summary of the chapter, because I think he sums it up neatly.  
 
“Good design is about usability. It is about ensuring that systems are accessible to all and that designs are acceptable for the people and contexts in which they will be used. Designers need to evaluate their designs with people and involve people in the design process. Paying attention to design principles can help sensitize the designer to key aspects of good design.” 
 
Reference 
 
Benyon, D. (2019). Designing user experience: A guide to HCI, UX and interaction design. Pearson