Methods
Formative Evaluation
Facts:
Lifecycle stage: All
Contributors: Nigel Bevan, Narendra Singhal, Ben Werner, Duane Degler, Chauncey Wilson
Version: 8/2009
Formative evaluation is a type of usability evaluation that helps to "form" the design for a product or service. Formative evaluations involve evaluating a product or service during development, often iteratively, with the goal of detecting and eliminating usability problems.
One important aspect of formative evaluation is that the audience for the observations and recommendations is the project team itself, used to immediately improve the design of the product or service and refine the development specifications. Results can be less formal than in summative evaluation, as suits the needs of designers, developers, project managers, and other project participants.
Heuristic evaluation, user interface inspections, thinking-aloud testing, pluralistic usability walkthroughs, and cognitive walkthroughs are some methods that can be used for formative evaluation. This approach is in contrast to a Summative evaluation which can only be started when a design is reasonably complete and involves judging the design against quantitative goals or competitive products.
Read More About It
Nielsen, J. (2008). Agile Development Projects and Usability.
Jakob Nielsen describes some of the strengths and weaknesses of agile development methods and suggests how agile and traditional methods can complement each other.
Maner, W. Formative usability evaluation procedure
Walter Maner provides an outline of the formative evaluation process with questions at each step of the process.
Theofanos, M. and Quesenbery, W. (2005). Towards the Design of Effective Formative Test Reports. Journal of Usability Studies, Issue 1, Volume 1, November 2005, pp. 28-46.
(Note: The term formative evaluation originated in instructional design.)
