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Section 2: Making spreadsheets usable

The section answers the following questions:

Section 2.1: What is usability and why is it important?
Section 2.2: What is involved in usability testing?
Section 2.3: How can accessibility be improved in spreadsheets?
Section 2.4: What does a well designed spreadsheet look like?

Section 2.1: What is usability and why is it important?

The term 'usability' is concerned with the quality of the persons experience when interacting with a software package. It has been defined by the International Standards Organisation as:

If usability is applied to the educational spreadsheet simulation context, then it is concerned with how easily the student finds using the simulation, how enjoyable they found it, and if the simulation meets the defined learning objectives.

A key question is, why is usability important?

The simple answer is, a well-designed system is more likely to enable users to achieve the intended objectives. In other words, a learning object may be pedagogically sound and will deliver the desired learning outcome, however, if the system is not usable then the learning object becomes redundant. Consequently, the aim is to develop a spreadsheet simulation that students can use to achieve the objectives of the designer (teacher).

The term usability is made up of a combination of factors that affect the user's experience. These are broadly divided into:

This is all well and good, but in practical terms what does this mean for the teacher?

It can be interpreted from the table that a highly usable interface is a system where the student finds they can easily accomplish their tasks. A useful method to achieve this is to include a significant quantity of instructional information. It is important to remember two overriding factors when designing computer based educational material:

1. The range of ability within the student group.
2. Students are likely to use the simulation as a learning aid when they are on their own.

Therefore, the more appropriate your instructional information, the more effective it is likely to be at engaging all your students. Based on the need for instructional information, some design pointers include:

1. Make the first worksheet your 'Introduction' page. This informs students what to do, and where to undertake the task. Also include additional information concerning use of comment boxes or other instructional information and pointers. Even though the spreadsheet is published for your own students, it is still useful to give a contact name and details, with a clear statement that if anybody is having problems accessing any of the information then they should contact you to arrange for the material to be re-designed if possible, to cater for their needs.
2. Accessibility will be discussed in more detail later, however, at this stage it is worth remembering that by their nature spreadsheets are numeric. Therefore, to account for a broad range of learning preferences the design should also include the use of text and graphical signposting.
3. The importance of consistency will be developed further in the tips for onscreen readability. However, there needs to be consistency both across worksheets within a spreadsheet simulation and consistency with respect to the look and feel between your different spreadsheet simulations. If all the spreadsheet simulations have a common internal and external look and feel then the "ease of learning", "ease of use" and "degree to which the spreadsheet can be remembered" will be greatly enhanced for the student.

It is important from a usability perspective that your spreadsheet simulation responds to the needs of the student. This implies that the designer needs to know these needs in the initial period before developing a large number of spreadsheets. In this case the design should be iterative, in other words, ongoing and responsive to user requirements. It is important that your spreadsheet simulation undergoes some usability testing.

Section 2.2: What is involved in usability testing?

The usability test is concerned with assessing the user's experience of your spreadsheet simulation. The goal is to identify any problems that users have and then rectify these problems.

Typically, you may want to answers the following types of questions:

1. Do users complete a task successfully?
2. If so, how fast do they do each task?
3. Is that fast enough to satisfy them?
4. What paths do they take when trying to complete the exercise?
5. At what point do students fail the task set?
6. What problems do students have using the spreadsheet?

These may seem very fundamental questions and it is important to keep these in mind during the design process. The aim of the usability test is to improve the design and ensure that it is user-centred. Generally this involves four steps:

1. Create a spreadsheet simulation
2. Test it out with students
3. Understand its strengths and weaknesses
4. Design a better version

The user centred design approach is a culture of prototypes and testing. For instance, the construction of a prototype spreadsheet simulation will allow you to develop a scenario for the student to attempt. As information is gathered then the prototype can be modified and additional aspects tested.

The next step is to organise a usability test. This requires a sample of students and a prototype spreadsheet simulation.

A common query with usability testing is, what is the best sample size? Nielsen (2000), suggests the most efficient sample size is 5 people. His research suggests that 85% of the usability problems would be found by the first five users. Therefore, it is more effective to run a large number of small usability tests than a few large tests.

As the goal of usability testing is to improve the design as opposed to simply documenting its weaknesses, then after an initial test of 5 users, redesign and then test again. The second test will allow you to probe further on usability issues.

Some other reasons for small scale, iterative usability testing are:

1. The sooner you find problems, the less expensive it is to fix them. For instance, finding problems early means less rework.
2. You can test navigation, instructional information, etc. before you've developed all the content.
3. You can test many design issues using prototypes, before committing to a large investment in terms of time.

Section 2.3: How can accessibility be improved in spreadsheets?

Accessibility is often viewed as a sub-group of usability and it has been referred to in Section 2.1. The issue of accessibility is also important due to UK legislation introduced in September 2001 (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act).

The section will focus on improving accessibility through improving the presentation of textual elements. The importance of designing your material for onscreen readability is evident from the following quote which implies if text is poorly presented then it is difficult to interpret.

"The whole point of the presentation of text is for the meaning to be easily digested" - Bradford (2000), http://www.dyslexia-parent.com

A good principle when designing material for onscreen reading is to remember that people process information in different styles. Therefore, you need to account for this and blend different styles in your presentation. For instance, where appropriate you should include:

1. Textual information
2. Graphics
3. Flow charts
4. Lists
5. Glossary of terms and jargon
6. Contents and index

Section 2.4: What does a well designed spreadsheet look like?

The screen shots in Sections 3, 4 and 5 highlight some of the good design principles that have been incorporated. The two crucial design aspects are a simple/uncluttered approach and instructional information.

Many of the screen shots used in the other sections highlight the use of different worksheets in the spreadsheet simulation. The aim is to use the worksheets in a similiar fashion to pages of a Web site. For instance, the spreadsheet in Section 3 includes:

1. The introduction sheet gives the aims of the spreadsheet activity, the sequence of tasks that you wish the student to undertake and a description of what information is on the individual worksheets. An important requirement of this sheet is to explain how the student can use the Excel comment boxes which contain a considerable amount of instructional information.
2. The simulation model worksheet contains the input area for students. The inclusion of comments within the spreadsheet allows the teacher to include glossary terms and instructions.
3. The 'output - numeric' and 'output - graphs' worksheets contain the results of the data analysis.
4. The additional information sheet could be used by the teacher to embed the spreadsheet activity within other resources, for instance, linking to relevant articles on the Web, or a discussion board.
5. The working area contains the workings of the spreadsheet model. It should have clear warnings for users not to change anything on this page unless requested by the teacher.

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