컴퓨터 기반 교육훈련을 위한 그래픽 사용자 인터페이스 사용성 평가 체계 개발

Abstract

A computer-based training (CBT) system has been used for efficient education and training in a variety of organization such as military or hospital. Ergonomic graphic user interface (GUI) is important in order to enhance learnability and efficiency. Existing studies have developed GUI usability evaluation framework by applying only a few considerations on GUIs for a specialized field such as CBT and focused on usability evaluation of particular GUI types such as sequence, hierarchy, or context type. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive GUI usability evaluation framework and identify preferred GUI features based on a comparative analysis of different GUI types. The present study is intended to develop a GUI usability evaluation framework for CBT and to improve the GUI of a CBT system in terms of usability. First, a three-step approach was applied in the study: (1) literature review of twenty studies related to usability evaluation, (2) analysis of GUI usability aspects by design components, evaluation criteria, evaluation metrics, and evaluation techniques, and (3) development of an integrated usability evaluation framework. As a result, 38 design components (e.g., layout alignment, dialogue mode in user input), 17 evaluation criteria (e.g., visibility, simplicity), 38 evaluation metrics (e.g., task completion time, Likert scale), and 19 evaluation techniques (e.g., heuristic evaluation, benchmark testing) were eastablished in the comprehensive GUI usability evaluation framework. Second, a comparative evaluation was conducted by 9 CBT design experts using a 7-point scale (1: very low, 7: very high) on hierarchy and context GUI types of a military CBT system in terms of 10 usability criteria. The hierarchy type was found preferred by 1.6 times in terms of controllability to the context type; while, the opposite was found in terms of attractiveness, simplicity, and responsiveness by 0.6, 0.8, and 0.8 times, respectively. Lastly, a new GUI type was developed by combining preferred features of the hierarchy and context types, and it was validated by 22 CBT users. The proposed GUI was found superior to the hierarchy and context types in terms of accessibility and informativeness by more than 1.5 times, however, inferior to the hierarchy and context type in terms of simplicity by 0.6 and 0.9 times, respectively. In summary, the comprehensive GUI usability evaluation framework developed in the present study can be applied to a wide range of GUIs (e.g., console) and utilized to evaluate GUIs systematically. In addition, the comparative analysis of various GUIs would be used for developing an improved GUI in a systematic manner based on preferred features of the existing GUIs.