ABSTRACT
Usability inspection methods (UIMs) are approaches to usability evaluation based on expert inspection of a user interface and the probable user interactions with it. This chapter introduces UIMs, presents several example methods, and highlights the limited resources provided by each. It focuses on what is required to turn the rough approaches of UIMs into effective methods. A UIM is an analytic approach to usability evaluation based on expert inspection of a user interface and the probable user interactions with it. Cognitive walkthrough is a UIM primarily concerned with learnability, initially developed to assess “walk up and use systems” and later extended to task-based assessment of more complex systems. In addition to resources that are closely associated with particular UIMs, many resources are discussed outside the context of particular UIMs or are common to several. Many assessments of UIMs have only used thoroughness as a quantitative measure and have shown, for example, how the use of multiple evaluators increases thoroughness.
