Incorporating Usability Methods In Software Development

On a marketplace where customers have an abundance of different options, it is vital to provide a product that is both pleasant and effective to use. When it comes to computer software a product can be endlessly innovative and ground breaking, if a user cannot understand it and use it efficiently, none of that matters. Software usability is the practise to tackle these issues. The case study conducted in this thesis aims to investigate common methods for introducing usability in software. Through the case study, methods for increasing usability will be studied, reviewed and applied during the development of a feedback portal intended for end users.For the case study the method Genius design was used in order to come up with an initial design for the system. The design was refined with the help of Wireframes and Wireflows that later were visualised by paper prototypes. In order to get feedback from the target audience, Observation tests were held. During the Observation tests actual users of the future system were monitored while performing tasks on the paper prototypes. The Observation tests provided valuable insights of how the users were interacting with the system, what they found easy to use, what they liked and what they did not like. From these activities the design of the system took form.The actual development of the system was done following the agile framework Scrum with a test driven approach following the SOLID principles. The iterative work cycles of Scrum, called "sprints", were done in two to three week periods with customer feedback at the end of each sprint. The test driven development approach to produce code, were used to create a scalable, stable system that can be extended in the future, if the customer would find the need to include more functionality.After evaluating the finished system an increase in usability could be seen. The quantitative measure that were gathered through the Observation test of the prototypes, were also gathered from the final system. Comparing these measures showed that the design of the new system was the better one.This study can conclude that the usability of a system can be increased by the use of the usability methods Genius design and Observation tests.