Comprehensive detection

Problems of sensitivity of the user interface to user errors are hard to detect, because users typically prefer to work around their errors rather than to report on them. ErgoLight� automatically detects and reports on a wide range of problems that are typically ignored in traditional software testing.

ErgoLight� identifies situations of user confusion and initiates a reporting session even before the user is aware of the fact that a usability problem has occurred, or that it should be reported to the application designers.

Problems in procedure knowledge

ErgoLight� identifies situations in which the user is not sure about the procedure that should be used to accomplish a task. ErgoLight� identifies such situation by problem indicators, such as the user response delay or the activation of a Help feature.

Sensitivity to unintentional actions

ErgoLight identifies problems that users are likely to ignore, including those relating to the sensitivity of the user interface to user errors. Consider, for example, what happens in case of a key slip. The result may be the activation of an unexpected dialog box, unintentional mode change or, even worse, activation of an undesired feature, such as erasing data. ErgoLight identifies these instances of user difficulty and reports on them as sensitivity problems.

Backtrack

ErgoLight �identifies situations of user confusion that rarely occur. The identification of such situations is provided by on-line detection and backtracking of the user actions.

User control

ErgoLight �was designed carefully to provide user control in all operational situations. The main concern is that users might avoid usability testing if it interrupts the fluent operation of the software application. Another concern is the integration with known learning schemes, including learning by reading from the Help screens and learning by �trial and error�. At the learning stage, the problem indicators may be invoked frequently. Users might avoid usability testing at the learning stages to avoid frequent interruption of the fluent learning processes.

Bypassing

�     ErgoLight provides bypass controls, allowing the user any time during the operation to bypass any of the problem indicators

Filtering

�     ErgoLight allows test managers to disable any of the problem indicators

Fluent operation

�     Whenever a problem is indicated, ErgoLight allows the user to resume normal operation rather than to report on the problem

User initiation

�     ErgoLight� supports user initiated reporting on usability problems they encounter, which may be used also if a relevant problem indicator is disabled.

On line recovery

ErgoLight�� provides on-line assistance to the end user, based on the results of the problem analysis. This information provided allows the user to resolve certain usability problems, such as mode errors, and to learn how to avoid error prone operations, such as using the wrong key combinations..