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In the user-centered approach to software design and development, end-users act as evaluators in usability tests at various points during the development life-cycle. Some usability professionals argue that these usability tests simply reflect the preferences of the participants and should not be used in place of objective performance measures. In an attempt to strengthen the validity of the user-centered approach, the present study examined the association between subjective preference measures and objective performance measures in relation to the user’s hardware and software use and familiarity. The results suggest that not only do the subjective ratings of enduser evaluators often ditTer from objective performance measures, but also that this relationship is dependent on the user’s past computer experience. INTRODUCTION One activity in a user-centered approach to software usability testing involves the evaluation of the product software by end-users. However, the testing methods used in this approach vary. Some usability professionals use subjective ratings, while others use objective measures, and still others use a combination. Several studies have examined the extent of agreement between both types of measures [3, 4, 5]. The results of these studies have been mixed suggesting the iniluence of other factors. It is possible that hardware and software familiarity of end-user evaluators could strongly influence their subjective ratings of a software interfacehystem. Such an effect might explain the lack of correspondence between subjective ratings and objective measures. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. CHI’ Companion 95, Denver, Colorado, USA @ 1995 ACM 0-89791 -755-3/95/0005...$3.50 Thus, a better understanding of this relationship would help usability professionals recruit an appropriate distribution of end-users for the evaluation process. Information regarding the potential relationship between subjective and objective usability measures may also be helpfid when only subjective ratings of systems are available. METHOD Participants Volunteer participants (N=12) stated that they had experience using a computer keyboard and mouse. The participants received course credit for participating. Survey information The computer experience survey was designed to show individual differences between evaluators. The survey addressed participants’ years of experience with computers, experience with different types of systems, hardware and software familiarity and use, and demographic information. Measures of preference, perceived ease-of-use, and expectation of high performance were collected using a 7-point Likert scale with left and right anchors of not at all and very much, respectively. Task A simple data retrieval task was used to assure that participants with varying levels of computer experience would be able to understand and evaluate the processes involved. The three interfaces used in the data retrieval task were 1) a command line, 2) a 2-level menu, and 3) a listbox. All three interfaces accessed the same database. The difference between interfaces was related to the method used to access the information. The command line interface had participants type in a customer name in order to retrieve the customer’s account number. The 2-level menu had participants access information by first categorizing the customer name within alphabetical ranges (i.e., A-E, F-H, etc.) by clicking on the appropriate button, then the participant searches a list of customer names from within the alphabetical range chosen and clicks on the appropriate

The effect of computer experience on subjective and objective software usability measures