New approaches to usability evaluation in software development: Barefoot and crowdsourcing

This paper presents and assesses two new approaches to overcome usability evaluation obstacles: a barefoot approach where software development practitioners are trained to drive usability evaluations; and a crowdsourcing approach where end users are given minimalist training to enable them to drive usability evaluations. We have evaluated how these approaches can reduce obstacles related to limited understanding, resistance and resource constraints. We found that these methods are complementary and highly relevant for software companies experiencing these obstacles. The barefoot approach is particularly suitable for reducing obstacles related to limited understanding and resistance while the crowdsourcing approach is cost-effective.