Software usability evaluation - An empirical study

This article presents an empirical study performed to evaluate the usability of a software applied to the agri-livestock area. The evaluation plan was prepared with basis on the Goal-Question-Metrics paradigm. The research was performed in a government department of Sao Paulo state, in Brazil, and the subjects were professionals that give assistance to small rural proper-ties in the planning, execution and control of agri-livestock activities, which can be supported by software systems. Usability is concerned with the suitability of the software for its users, defined in this work through the following attributes: easiness of understanding, easiness of learning, operationability, software attractiveness and user satisfaction, and usefulness and accomplishment of the goals. The preparation and execution of the empirical study are described and the data analysis and conclusions are presented. The obtained results indicate a satisfactory level of usability for the considered software. Besides evaluating the software, the study aim to contribute to the detailing of a process, based on GQM, to perform usability evaluations. The work also represents a contribution to the software quality improvement, primarily to those systems applied to agri-livestock tasks.