Articles by Joe Dumas
Dr. Joseph Dumas is a nationally recognized leader in the human-computer interaction profession and is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Usability Studies. He is the author of three books: Designing User Interfaces for Software (1988), A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (1993; 1999) with Ginny Redish, and Moderating Usability Tests: Principles & Practices for Interacting (2008) with Beth Loring. He has published dozens of papers in the popular and research literature, including a chapter on Usability Testing for three editions of the Human-Computer Interaction Handbook. He has held positions in industry - for Oracle Corporation and academia - for Bentley University where he taught in its graduate Human Factors program. He is currently consulting with Oracle on strategic projects. He received his PhD. in Cognitive Psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo.
Introduction to Volume 6, Issue 2
This is the second issue of Volume 6 of the journal. It includes a farewell from Avi Parush, who started the journal and served as editor in chief for its first five years. He set the bar high for both the quality of the papers and for the positive, constructive, and humane way he treated […] [Read More]
Introduction to Volume 6, Issue 1
Welcome to the first issue of Volume 6 of the Journal of Usability Studies. With this issue the Journal of Usability Studies reaches an important milestone: it was five years ago this month when we published Volume 1, Issue 1. With the launch of the journal, UPA made a long-term commitment to making a contribution […] [Read More]
Making Usability Recommendations Useful and Usable
Abstract This paper evaluates the quality of recommendations for improving a user interface resulting from a usability evaluation. The study compares usability comments written by different authors, but describing similar usability issues. The usability comments were provided by 17 professional teams who independently evaluated the usability of the website for the Hotel Pennsylvania in New […] [Read More]
A Great Leap Forward: The Birth of the Usability Profession (1988-1993)
In a recent editorial in this journal, Arnie Lund (2006) talked about “post-modern usability.” He urged us to move into a post-modern era in which we embrace “…both the existential understanding of the user in context as we design experiences that capture every aspect of the user…”(p.4) I agree with Arnie, but I am concerned […] [Read More]