Quality of Use Assessment
The assessment of the quality of use is essential for improving products. It helps to shape the result to the needs and reuqirements of users and assures that the expected benefit for the customers is achieved.
Iterative cyles of implementation, testing, and improvement with rapid feedback from experts and prospective users speed up the development of new products and contribute to better product quality.
The most cost-effective approach for a specific situation is found by analyzing all aspects and by selecting appropriate methods. Independent experts support management and development teams by recommending and implementing a detailed procedure which fits their requirements.
Expert review - cost-effective improvement of the quality of a product
Expert reviews in the early phases of the development process can be carried out with a fraction of the cost of traditional user tests. We inspect the quality of use of concepts, alternative and partial designs, prototypes or components, but also finished projects. We reveal defects and user problems which users will encounter later. We assess and document the conformance with quality and industry standards (minimum requirements), with quality of use principles, and we take into account the limitations of the human information processing capacity. We check if the known user needs and requirements will be fulfilled by the product.
The result of an expert review is a list of precisely described defects and user problems, in the order of priority beginning with critical, severe defects. We provide recommendations for improvement and action.
A more focussed user test only pays off after a product has successfully passed the expert review.