UI Design Literature Study

Usability Basics for Software Developers Read this paper for a concise but good introduction to usability engineering, including how to perform usability engineering and why it's necessary. This paper breaks down the usability process into three phases: usability analysis, usability design, prototyping, and usability evaluation. Usability analysis includes user analysis (user visits, focus groups, surveys, user feedback studies), task analysis (creating use cases), and usability benchmarks (e.g. quantifying how long it takes a user to perform a task). Prototyping can include paper mock-ups, "Wizard of Oz" studies, scenarios, storyboards, and snapshots. Usability evaluation is user testing, including think-aloud studies, heuristic evaluation, and collaborative usability inspection.