Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!mmm!cipher
From: cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Tools for user interface RESEARCH
Keywords: user interfaces, research, tools
Message-ID: <1268@mmm.UUCP>
Date: 23 May 89 19:48:55 GMT
References: <4128@bgsuvax.UUCP> <1085@dgbt.uucp>
Reply-To: cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard)
Distribution: na
Organization: 3M Company - Software and Electronics Resource Center (SERC); St. Paul, MN
Lines: 17

In article <1085@dgbt.uucp> andrew@dgbt.crc.dnd.ca (Andrew Patrick) writes:
>>Has anyone made a generic tool for user interface research?

>... our generic "tool" is to sit people down and ask them what they
>think, and measure what they do.

Perhaps what the original poster intended, was a tool to automate the
measurement process.  Thus if you're measuring the time it takes
the user to perform some operation, and the rate of error in doing so,
the "tool" would hover over your application and note when keys are pressed
and whether they're the right keys.  It might be difficult to make this
general-purpose enough and portable enough.
-- 
    "Lalabalele talala!  Callabele lalabalica falahle!  |   Andre Guirard
     Callamalala galalate!  Caritalla lalabalee		|   cipher@3m.com
     kallalale poo!"					|  "Wake me up for
	 						|   the good part."