SOFTWARE SIMULATION AS A TOOL FOR USABLE PRODUCT DESIGN

A design exercise performed by human factors specialists is described. In this exercise a front-of-screen simulation of the Interactive Chart Utility was written before a working prototype was available in order to draft and test a series of on-line instructional (HELP) panels for incorporation into the final product. Trials were run in which the keyboard activity and utterances of naive subjects were recorded for later action replay, before and after redrafting the simulation. Three objective measures to detect the resulting improvement are considered, and the most robust identified.