Evaluating user interfaces using techniques from qualitative data analysis

An approach to handling qualitative data for the purposes of holistic interface evaluation is described. With holistic evaluation, the problem is to determine which of two interfaces is preferred by the users. Observation of users and follow-up interviews with them provide a great deal of information but there are problems handling semi-structured and unstructured data. It is suggested that techniques taken from the area of qualitative research can be used to deal with these difficulties. It is also proposed that software such as NUD.IST be employed to permit an in-depth analysis of the interviews and speed up the process of interpreting the data. Interviews with students who used two interfaces to an expert system are analysed using NUD.IST to illustrate how the techniques taken from qualitative research can be applied