Title: A Comparison of Usage Evaluation and Inspection Methods for Assessing Groupware Usability

Abstract: Evaluating groupware usability can be a difficult problem. Many researchers believe that groupware can only be evaluated by studying real collaborators in their real contexts, a process which tends to be expensive and time-consuming. Others believe that it is more practical to evaluate groupware through usability inspection methods. Deciding between these two approaches is difficult, because it is unclear how they compare in a real evaluation situation. To address this problem, we carried out a dual evaluation of a groupware system, with one evaluation applying user-based techniques, and the other using inspection methods. We compared the results from the two evaluations and concluded that, although user-based techniques do provide some information that cannot be found through other means, inspection techniques are an inexpensive and effective way of finding usability problems in groupware.

Keywords: Evaluation, groupware usability, inspection evaluation techniques, usage evaluation techniques