How did the scope of usability testing shift when moving from complex machinery (pre-1970s) to consumer software?
Answer
It expanded to include satisfaction and aesthetics alongside efficiency.
With consumer software and the web, usability expanded beyond safety and throughput to include subjective elements like user satisfaction and aesthetics, because a commercial failure results from users clicking away.
Related Questions
From which earlier fields did the origin of usability testing gradually evolve?What was the core conceptual shift championed by early human factors engineering regarding system failures?During which period did the practice of systematically testing user interfaces coalesce as technology shifted toward interactive computing?What influential guide did Jakob Nielsen famously co-author in 1990 to help evaluate user interfaces quickly?What tension exists between early lab testing and methods prioritized by the pressure of rapid software releases?What famous numerical benchmark did Nielsen advocate for regarding the number of users to test to find most major problems?How did the scope of usability testing shift when moving from complex machinery (pre-1970s) to consumer software?What factor drove the adoption of lower-barrier testing methods like remote or guerrilla testing for web assets?What is the primary risk to the authority of usability findings in the modern, democratized testing landscape?Which metric represents an attempt in modern practice to quantify the subjective feeling of use?What core activity has remained fundamentally the same throughout the evolution of usability testing, from industrial levers to mobile apps?