Articles by Mary Theofanos

Mary Frances Theofanos is a Computer Scientist in the Visualization and Usability Group in the Information Access Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She leads the Industry Usability Reporting (IUSR) Project, developing standards for usability such as the Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports. Previously, she was the Manager of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Communication Technologies Research Center (CTRC) a state-of-the-art usability testing facility. Before joining NCI, Mary spent 15 years as a program manager for software technology at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory complex of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Towards the Design of Effective Formative Test Reports

Abstract Many usability practitioners conduct most of their usability evaluations to improve a product during its design and development. We call these “formative” evaluations to distinguish them from “summative” (validation) usability tests at the end of development. A standard for reporting summative usability test results has been adopted by international standards organizations. But that standard […] [Read More]