Publication statistics
Pub. period:1982-1996
Pub. count:8
Number of co-authors:4
Co-authors
Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:
Robert W. Allan:2P. Raiello:1Gregory S. McIntyre:1 Productive colleagues
Robert W. Bailey's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:
Robert W. Allan:2P. Raiello:1Gregory S. McIntyr..:1 
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Robert W. Bailey
Publications by Robert W. Bailey (bibliography)
Bailey, Robert W. (1996): Human Performance Engineering: Designing High Quality, Professional User Interfaces for Computer Products, Applications, and Systems. Prentice Hall
Bailey, Robert W. (1993): Performance vs. Preference. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting 1993. pp. 282-286.
One of the main tenets of most company-sponsored quality programs is that the customer is always right. Designers frequently evaluate the goodness of their systems by simply asking users whether or not they like the interface. The fallacy of this approach is that users generally make judgements based on their "preferences" and tend to ignore the more important performance issues. System designers frequently use their own preferences to make decisions, and then make major inferences about how users will perform with their system. Several past studies are reviewed to show that users can perform well and not like a system, or like a system and still not perform well. Two recent studies are reported showing a mismatch between designer's preferences for certain interface decisions, and measured user performance when using the resulting interfaces. It is proposed that better user interfaces are possible if we clearly separate the performance and preference concepts, recognize the limitations of each, and work to optimize one or the other (there is usually not sufficient time to optimize both). The only way to ensure that systems will elicit acceptable levels of performance is to conduct performance-oriented usability tests.
© All rights reserved Bailey and/or Human Factors Society
Bailey, Robert W., Allan, Robert W. and Raiello, P. (1992): Usability Testing vs. Heuristic Evaluation: A Head-to-Head Comparison. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting 1992. pp. 409-413.
The importance of user testing, heuristic evaluation and iterative design in the development of computer software programs was examined. In the first study, twenty-five subjects with limited computer experience, were randomly divided into five groups of five subjects each. All groups were asked to perform a telephone bill inquiry task using two character-based screens. After having one group perform, one change per screen was made before beginning the testing of the next group. The system was improved three times. A final experimental group completed the same task using an "ideal" system designed and presented by Molich and Nielsen (1990). Rather than the 29 changes originally suggested by Molich and Nielsen, our results showed that only one change to each of the original screens was necessary to achieve the same performance and preference levels as those demonstrated by their "ideal" system. The same task was repeated using a graphical user interface. A heuristic evaluation suggested up to 43 potential changes, whereas the usability test demonstrated that only two changes optimized performance. These findings demonstrate one of the major weaknesses of heuristic evaluations, and the importance of usability testing in the design and development of human interfaces.
© All rights reserved Bailey et al. and/or Human Factors Society
Bailey, Robert W. (1991): Converting Research into Reality. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting 1991. pp. 345-349.
It is proposed that current user interface research is not being incorporated in a timely way in new systems. Some reasons for this are proposed and discussed. Possible solutions include (a) better selection of research topics, (b) conducting rapid studies, and (c) writing research reports specifically for practitioners.
© All rights reserved Bailey and/or Human Factors Society
Allan, Robert W., Bailey, Robert W., McIntyre, Gregory S. and Bozza, Michelle (1991): Placement of Menu Choices. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting 1991. pp. 379-382.
These studies suggest that for certain menus there may be performance advantages in having choices placed on the right side of options. This holds for measures of both speed and accuracy. However, for some menus there is a slight advantage for having choices on the left side. Accuracy levels tended to be better with choices positioned to the right of options. The results suggest that practitioners should consider the relative positioning of options and choices in the design of user interfaces.
© All rights reserved Allan et al. and/or Human Factors Society
Bailey, Robert W. (1989): Human Performance Engineering: Using Human Factors/Ergonomics to Achieve Computer System Usability. Englewood-Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall
Bailey, Robert W. (1983): Human Error in Computer Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall
Bailey, Robert W. (1982): Human Performance Engineering: A Guide for System Designers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall
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