SimUI: graphical user interface evaluation using playback

The author describes a set of tools for evaluating graphical user interface designs during software development. These tools record mouse and keyboard operations by users and compare them to detect potential usability problems. The tools two main techniques are data gathering in playback mode and multistep matching of recorded data. A preliminary experiment showed that the tools can automate part of the usability evaluation process by detecting differences often overlooked by human observers.<
>