ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to naturalistic usability, sometimes called field usability. The term “naturalistic usability” includes a range of approaches to evaluation that attempt to provide a more holistic and realistic assessment of usability than is possible in a conventional usability laboratory study. People doing naturalistic usability in the field may at times look like they are doing ethnography or contextual inquiry or even things not that different from standard laboratory evaluations. Tasks in a conventional laboratory-based usability evaluation are typically based on some premise or assumption about motivation or goal, which the user is asked to accept. Laboratory usability evaluations typically focus on individual users. However, usability of many tools depends on organizational and social issues in the usage context. A minimal degree may involve a fairly structured usability evaluation in a simulated environment where the contents of the tasks are nevertheless highly personalized to the user.
