KR20160021704A - Apparatus and method for measuring usability - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device and method for measuring usability and, more specifically, to a device for measuring usability which analyzes a used pattern of a particular application and receives a response to a questionnaire so as to measure usability of the corresponding application, and to a method thereof. The device for measuring usability according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a usability information collecting unit for collecting usability information with respect to a target application by receiving a user command through an input layer existing in an upper side of a screen interface by the target application; and a communications unit for transmitting the collected usability information.

Description

[0001] Apparatus and method for measuring usability [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a usability measuring apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a usability measuring apparatus and method for analyzing usability patterns of a specific application and receiving usability of a questionnaire response.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With the proliferation of personal devices with touch-based interfaces, such as smartphones and tablets today, there is a growing need to measure the usability of such devices and the applications that operate on them.

To evaluate usability, various techniques such as laboratory tests, expert reviews, and focus group interviews are used to collect quantitative data as well as to collect emotions actually felt by users.

On the other hand, in order to evaluate the usability of the purpose application to be used in the usability evaluation, usage patterns of the target application must be collected, and it is difficult to collect usage patterns of the target application in a separate application operating on the operating system.

Therefore, the emergence of an invention that enables us to collect usage patterns of a target application in a simpler way and to determine the usability thereof is required.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0100146 (2012.12.12)

An object of the present invention is to measure a usability of a specific application by analyzing a usage pattern of the specific application and receiving a survey response corresponding thereto.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, the usability measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a user command through an input layer existing on an upper layer of a screen interface by an object application, An information collecting unit, and a communication unit for transmitting the collected usability information.

The usability measuring method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of collecting usability information for the target application by receiving a user command through an input layer existing on a screen interface by an objective application, To the base station.

The details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and drawings.

According to the usability measuring apparatus and method of the present invention as described above, the usability pattern of the target application is collected by analyzing the usage pattern of the target application and receiving a survey response according to the usage pattern, There is an advantage that usability can be judged.

1 is a diagram illustrating a usability measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a usability measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a detailed configuration of the usability information collecting unit shown in FIG. 2. FIG.
4 is a diagram illustrating input of a user command according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a view showing a questionnaire output on a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a view illustrating a question input screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a diagram illustrating a checkpoint input screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a usability analysis result according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention and the manner of achieving them will become apparent with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein may be used in a sense commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Also, commonly used predefined terms are not ideally or excessively interpreted unless explicitly defined otherwise.

FIG. 1 shows a usability measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The usability measurement system 10 includes a usability analysis server 100 and usability measuring apparatus 200.

The usability measuring apparatus 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention refers to an apparatus that performs an associated task by driving an installed application. The usability measuring apparatus 200 may be a personal computer (PC) And may be portable, such as a laptop, tablet PC and smart phone.

However, the usability measuring apparatus 200 preferably includes input means capable of inputting information or a user command, and output means capable of outputting input information or received information.

One or more applications may be installed and operated on the usability measuring apparatus 200. The usability measuring apparatus 200 may collect usability information of the target application that is the target of the usability measurement and transmit the usability information to the usability analysis server 100 .

Usability in the present invention means usefulness or convenience to be evaluated by a user for a driven application, and usability information means that data about usability are expressed by numerical values.

Further, the usability information according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a questionnaire response provided from a user.

On the other hand, it may be difficult to use another application on the usability measuring apparatus 200 to measure usability for a specific application.

For example, in order to measure the usability of an application that is a usability measurement target, it is necessary to be able to detect all operations performed by the target application and commands inputted to the target application, and it is easy to detect such a task or command by a separate application It is not.

Hereinafter, an application that is a target of usability measurement is referred to as a target application, and an application that detects a task or command for a target application is referred to as a measurement application.

In an environment in which the information about the task is transmitted to the operating system every time the task is performed by the target application and the measurement application separated from the target application can receive the information about the task from the operating system, Detection is possible but in an environment where it is not, there is a limit to the range that the measurement application can detect for the task or command of the target application.

Accordingly, the measurement application according to the embodiment of the present invention can be included in the target application. That is, the measurement application may exist in the destination application in the form of a library, so that the measurement application can obtain the authority to collect information about the operation performed by the destination application.

On the other hand, when the target application is an application that has already been produced in advance, it may not be easy to embed the measurement application. Objective applications have various objects, and many variables and parameters are set for each object. Even a developer who has created a target application can not easily connect a specific object to a measurement application.

In particular, in the case of a target application providing a screen interface, a plurality of buttons may be provided as an object, and it is not easy to connect a button and a measurement application.

Accordingly, the measurement application according to the embodiment of the present invention can use a separate layer existing in the upper part of the screen interface in order to confirm the command inputted to the screen interface.

For example, when a user selects a button, the layer preferentially detects a user command before a selection command for the button is generated. The usability collection task is performed through the detected user command, and thereafter And generates a selection command for the corresponding button.

Here, the detection of the user command through the layer can be performed based on the coordinates of the user command generated on the layer and the coordinates of each object existing in the screen interface, which will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The usability analyzing server 100 analyzes usability information received from the usability measuring apparatus 200 and provides a result of the usability information (hereinafter referred to as a usability analysis result).

The usability analysis result may be implemented as text or image and provided to the developer or user of the target application.

The network 300 may be a wired or wireless Internet or may be a core network integrated with a wired public network, a wireless mobile communication network, or a portable Internet, or may be a core network including a TCP / IP protocol and various services (E.g., Text Transfer Protocol), Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Domain Name System (DNS), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a usability measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The usability measuring apparatus 200 includes a usability information collecting unit 210, an input unit 220, a storage unit 230, a control unit 240, An output unit 250 and a communication unit 260.

The usability information collection unit 210 according to the embodiment of the present invention can be understood as being the measurement application itself or included in the measurement application. Accordingly, the usability information collection unit 210 can be understood as being embedded in the object application in the form of a library.

The usability information collecting unit 210 collects usability information for the target application by receiving a user command through an input layer that is higher than the screen interface by the target application.

For this purpose, the usability information collection unit 210 may include an instruction determination unit 211 for determining a user instruction inputted through the input layer. The instruction determination unit 211 determines whether or not the user instruction The coordinates and the coordinates of the object existing in the screen interface to determine the object corresponding to the user command.

The usability information collection unit 210 may further include at least one of an exception reception unit 212, a screen information collection unit 213 and a questionnaire information collection unit 214 as well as the command determination unit 211.

The exception receiving unit 212 plays a role of receiving information about an exception generated during the operation of the object application.

Since the usability information collecting unit 210 is embedded in the target application as a library, the exception receiving unit 212 has an authority to acquire information about an exception generated in the target application from the operating system. When an exception occurs, information on the exception is transmitted to the operating system, and the exception receiving unit 212 receives information on an exception from the operating system.

The screen information collecting unit 213 collects information about each object constituting the screen interface (hereinafter referred to as object information). The object information may include an object size, a coordinate, and an ID, and may be a captured image of a screen interface.

The questionnaire information collecting unit 214 plays a role of presenting a questionnaire and receiving a response thereto.

The questionnaire information collecting unit 214 extracts questionnaires stored in the storage unit 230 and presents the questionnaires to the users, And stores the received questionnaire response in the storage unit 230.

In receiving the questionnaire response, the questionnaire information collecting unit 214 displays a questionnaire corresponding to the questionnaire presentation condition when a user command satisfying a predetermined condition (hereinafter, referred to as a questionnaire presentation condition) And receive a response thereto.

For example, when the user selects a specific button or selects a specific button a predetermined number of times, the questionnaire information collecting unit 214 extracts the questionnaire related to the button from the storage unit 230 and presents it to the user.

As a result, the usability information collected by the usability information collection unit 210 includes information such as the type of the object corresponding to the user command, the coordinates of the screen interface corresponding to the user command, information about the exception, the captured image of the screen interface, As shown in FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the input unit 220 plays a role of receiving a user command or a questionnaire response. The input unit 220 may include a button, a wheel, a jog shuttle, and the like to receive a command from a user. Here, the input unit 220 may be a single device by itself, for example, a wireless remote controller may serve as the input unit 220. That is, the user can input information using buttons and wheels provided in the wireless remote controller. When the inertial sensor is provided in the wireless remote controller, the user applies motion to the wireless remote controller and inputs information corresponding to the motion locus .

2 shows that the input unit 220 and the output unit 250 are composed of different modules. However, when the usability measuring apparatus 200 is provided with a touch screen function, the input unit 220 and the output unit 250 It may be composed of one module. That is, the user can input a user command based on the screen interface displayed on the screen.

The storage unit 230 stores the usability information collected by the usability information collection unit 210. Also, the storage unit 230 may store the questionnaire and the questionnaire responses, and the questionnaire responses may be stored in the usability information.

The output unit 250 outputs the input information input through the screen interface and the input unit 220. Also, the output unit 250 may output the questionnaire extracted by the questionnaire information collecting unit 214, and may output the usability analysis result when the usability analysis server 100 receives the usability analysis result.

The output unit 250 may output not only the image but also the voice. The input information, the questionnaire, and the usability analysis result input through the input unit 220 may be output in at least one form of image and voice.

The communication unit 260 transmits usability information collected by the usability information collection unit 210 to the usability analysis server 100 and receives usability analysis results from the usability analysis server 100. [

In addition, the communication unit 260 can receive the questionnaire and the questionnaire presentation condition from the usability analysis server 100, and the received questionnaire and the questionnaire presentation condition are stored in the storage unit 230. [

The control unit 240 performs overall control of the usability information collection unit 210, the input unit 220, the storage unit 230, the output unit 250, and the communication unit 260.

4 is a diagram illustrating input of a user command according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, the command deciding unit 211 according to the embodiment of the present invention determines the user command inputted through the input layer 420 existing above the screen interface 410 by the object application, Illustrates a screen interface 410 and an input layer 420 thereon.

A variety of objects such as a multimedia display window 411, a text display window 412 and a button 413 may exist on the screen interface 410. Since the input layer 420 exists in the upper part of the screen interface 410, The layer 420 acquires a user command preferentially in comparison with the screen interface 410. [

For example, when a user selects a specific button using the input unit 220 implemented in the form of a touch screen, the user's finger 430 indicates a point 432 corresponding to the button, It is the input layer 420 that receives the touch command preferentially.

The command determination unit 211 identifies the button on the screen interface 410 using the coordinates of the point 431 touched on the input layer 420 and displays the identification information (e.g., ID) to the destination application. Thus, the target application can perform the operation assigned to the button.

At this time, the command determination unit 211 may store the usability information before transmitting the identification information of the button. The coordinates on the screen interface 410, and the type of the selected object.

In addition, the determination result by the command determination unit 211 may be transmitted to the questionnaire information collection unit 214. The questionnaire information collection unit 214 determines whether the user command satisfies the preset questionnaire presentation conditions If they meet, they can present the questionnaire and receive the questionnaire response.

That is, since the questionnaire is presented to the user before the operation for the corresponding button is performed, since the questionnaire response is received from the user as soon as the user command is input, more reliable usability information can be obtained.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a questionnaire output on a screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the object application is driven to output the screen interface 410, the screen information collection unit 213 collects information about each object constituting the screen interface 410. [

For example, when the user selects a specific button among the screen interfaces 410, the command determining unit 211 determines whether the user command is input through the input unit 420 And determines which button has been selected by using the coordinate and information on the object collected by the screen information collecting unit 213. [

When the selection of the button is completed, the command determining unit 211 may transmit the identification information of the button or the coordinates to which the user command is inputted to the questionnaire information collecting unit 214. The questionnaire information collecting unit 214, It is possible to determine whether or not the questionnaire 500 is presented by referring to the information.

For example, when a specific button is selected or a specific button is selected a predetermined number of times, the questionnaire information collecting unit 214 may present the questionnaire 500.

Alternatively, the coordinate of the user command input by the user may be an empty space other than the point where the object exists. The coordinates of the empty space may be transmitted to the questionnaire information collecting unit 214, May determine whether to display the questionnaire 500 using only the coordinates of the user command.

The questionnaire 500 presented by the questionnaire information collecting unit 214 may be presented in the form of at least one of an image and a voice. FIG. 5 shows a questionnaire 500 composed of images.

The user can respond to the questionnaire 500 by using the input unit 220. When inputting the questionnaire response is completed, the questionnaire information collecting unit 214 stores the inputted questionnaire response in the storage unit 230, 500) from the screen.

The questionnaire 500 is removed from the screen, the control right is transferred to the destination application, and the destination application performs an operation corresponding to the user command.

6 is a view illustrating a question input screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. For example, a developer of a target application can create a questionnaire on a target application and provide the questionnaire to a user. FIG. 6 shows a questionnaire input screen 600 by a measurer.

The measurer can input the question content 620 and the selection item 630 for the question content through the question input screen 600 and determine the placement of each object included in the screen.

In addition, the measurer can determine when the questionnaire is presented. That is, it is presented to the user in the questionnaire at the time set by the measurer. Hereinafter, the point or condition at which the questionnaire is presented is referred to as a checkpoint.

7 is a diagram illustrating a checkpoint input screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The checkpoint according to the embodiment of the present invention means a time or condition at which a question is presented to a user. The questionnaire presentation condition may be used as information for determining whether a checkpoint has been reached.

The checkpoint input screen 700 includes a checkpoint list 710 and a detail item 720 for the selected checkpoint.

The measurer can set a specific task among the tasks performed by the target application as a checkpoint and input it to the checkpoint list 710. For example, the measurer can start the operation of the target application, log in, You can set it as a checkpoint and enter it in the checkpoint list.

FIG. 7 shows that the number of sessions in the checkpoint list has been selected by the measurer, and the third session has been input as a detailed item.

According to this, a case where the session is performed for the third time is a condition for presenting a questionnaire. If the condition is satisfied, a questionnaire is presented to the user.

After the checkpoint is set as described above, the measurer can input the questionnaire while switching checkpoints through the checkpoint selection item 610 included in the questionnaire input screen 600 of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a usability analysis result according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A plurality of screen interfaces provided by the target application may exist, and the usability analysis server 100 may analyze the usability for each screen interface and provide the screen interface.

The usability analysis result screen 800 includes a session number 811, a duration number 812, an interaction number 813, a page number 814, A Visit Ratio 815, a Duration Ratio 816, an Interaction Ratio 817, an Unresponsive Action 818, an Open App 821, A close-before-end ratio 822, and a test page conversion ratio 823 and 824.

8 shows a usability analysis result screen 800 for a specific screen interface 830 among a plurality of screen interfaces provided by the object application. Hereinafter, the screen interface that is the target of the usability analysis is referred to as the destination screen interface 830. [

The number of sessions 811 indicates the number of visits to the destination screen interface 830 after the operation of the destination application is started.

The duration 812 indicates the cumulative time at which the destination screen interface 830 is output after the destination application is installed.

The interchange count 813 indicates the number of times the object included in the destination screen interface 830 is selected by the user.

The number of visits 814 indicates the ratio of the number of visits to the destination screen interface 830 after the target application is installed.

The visit ratio 815 indicates the ratio of the number of visits to the destination screen interface 830 during the number of visits to the full screen interface since the destination application is installed.

The persistence ratio 816 indicates the ratio of the cumulative time of the output of the destination screen interface 830 to the cumulative time of the output of the full-screen interface since the destination application was installed.

The interchange ratio 817 indicates the number of times the object included in the destination screen interface 830 is selected by the user for the number of times the object included in the full screen interface has been selected by the user since the destination application is installed.

The non-response ratio 818 indicates a rate at which an object included in the destination screen interface 830 is not selected. The destination screen interface 830 includes an object such as a button and an empty space. The number of times the empty space is selected among all the selected times may be the non-response ratio.

The post-visit ratio 821 indicates the rate at which the destination screen interface 830 is output from the full screen interface after the object application starts to operate.

The pre-termination ratio 822 indicates the rate at which the destination screen interface 830 is output from among the full-screen interfaces before the end of the target application.

The test page conversion ratios 823 and 824 indicate the rate at which a specific test page is outputted after the target screen interface 830 is outputted after the specific test page is outputted or after the target screen interface 830 is outputted.

In addition, the usability analysis result screen 800 may include a ratio in which each object and empty space included in the destination screen interface 830 are selected.

Meanwhile, the usability analysis result screen 800 shown in FIG. 8 is an example, and some items may be omitted or additional items may be added.

In addition, usability analysis results for a plurality of screen interfaces other than a single screen interface may be included in one usability analysis result screen.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, It will be understood. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive.

210: usability information collecting unit 220: inputting unit
230: storage unit 240: control unit
250: output unit 260: communication unit

Claims (12)

A usability information collecting unit for collecting usability information for the target application by receiving a user command through an input layer that is higher than the screen interface by the target application; And
And a communication unit that transmits the collected usability information. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the usability information collection unit includes a command determination unit for determining the user command input through the input layer,
An exception receiving unit that receives information on an exception generated during operation of the target application;
A screen information collecting unit for collecting information on each object constituting the screen interface; And
And a questionnaire information collecting unit for presenting a questionnaire and receiving a response to the questionnaire. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the command determination unit determines an object corresponding to the user command by referring to coordinates of the user command input on the input layer and coordinates of an object existing on the screen interface. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the usability information includes at least one of a type of the object corresponding to the user command, a coordinate on the screen interface corresponding to the user command, information on the exception, a captured image of the screen interface, and a response to the questionnaire Usability measuring device. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the questionnaire information collecting unit presents a questionnaire corresponding to the condition and receives a response thereto when a user command satisfying a predetermined condition is input. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the usability information collecting unit is built in the target application. Collecting usability information for the target application by receiving a user command through an input layer that is higher than the screen interface by the target application; And
And transmitting the collected usability information. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein collecting the usability information comprises determining the user command input via the input layer,
Receiving information about an exception that occurred during operation of the target application;
Collecting information about each object constituting the screen interface; And
And presenting the questionnaire and receiving a response thereto. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the step of receiving the user command includes a step of determining an object corresponding to the user command by referring to the coordinates of the user command inputted on the input layer and the coordinates of an object existing in the screen interface . 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein the usability information includes at least one of a type of the object corresponding to the user command, a coordinate on the screen interface corresponding to the user command, information on the exception, a captured image of the screen interface, and a response to the questionnaire Usability measurement method. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the step of presenting the questionnaire and receiving a response thereto comprises: determining whether a user command satisfying a preset condition of the user command is input; And
If a user command satisfying a preset condition is input according to a result of the determination, presenting a questionnaire corresponding to the condition and receiving a response thereto. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the usability information collecting unit performing the step of collecting the usability information is embedded in the target application.

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