{ "model": { "rank": 11540, "code": "thing-q216378", "model_id": "vr.tr.usability", "name": "usability", "purpose": "Let an agent explain usability, relay definitions, evaluation methods and metrics from human-computer interaction and standards sources, describe the named applications and flag misfiled engineering aliases, and distinguish usability from accessibility, user experience, utility and structural serviceability.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q216378/", "tier": 2, "score": 42, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Web usability", "serviceability", "machine translation software usability", "Serviceability Limit State" ], "aliasCount": 4, "merged": 4, "knownIn": 42, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q216378", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q216378", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-14T00:45:21Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q216378", "registryId": "vr.tr.usability", "name": "usability", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q216378/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.usability", "name": "usability", "purpose": "Let an agent explain usability, relay definitions, evaluation methods and metrics from human-computer interaction and standards sources, describe the named applications and flag misfiled engineering aliases, and distinguish usability from accessibility, user experience, utility and structural serviceability.", "definition": "The extent to which a product, system or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use, as defined in ISO 9241-11, assessed through usability testing, heuristic evaluation and metrics such as the System Usability Scale, and applied to web usability and software such as machine translation tools; the registry aliases also name serviceability, which in engineering means ease of maintenance or fitness for use, and the Serviceability Limit State, a structural engineering criterion for deflection and cracking under normal loads, which are different concepts and appear misfiled. Usability overlaps with but differs from accessibility and user experience.", "what_it_is_for": "Assessing how well people can use things.", "affordances": [ "explain definitions and standards", "relay evaluation methods", "describe applications", "flag misfiled aliases" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Context-dependent", "Measured with users", "Three core components", "Iterative design practice" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; observed in user tests, heuristics and survey scores.", "visual_identification": [ "Effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in use", "Web usability, serviceability, machine translation software usability, Serviceability Limit State", "Accessibility covers people with disabilities; user experience is broader; utility is whether features meet needs; serviceability limit state is a structural criterion" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "ISO 9241-11", "typical_range": "1998, revised 2018", "unit": "standard", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "System Usability Scale", "typical_range": "1986", "unit": "year", "note": "John Brooke, 10 items" }, { "quantity": "Nielsen usability heuristics", "typical_range": "1990, refined 1994", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "web usability", "software usability", "product usability", "usability of translation tools" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "quality", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is defined in", "target": "ISO 9241", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "accessibility", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "serviceability limit state", "why": "misfiled engineering alias" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ISO 9241-11 and ISO 9241-210", "ISO/IEC 25010 product quality model", "Eurocode serviceability limit states for the misfiled alias" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Designs that cause user errors in safety-critical systems", "Confusing usability with accessibility", "Misfiled engineering aliases" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What usability is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is usability, and how does it differ from accessibility, user experience, utility and structural serviceability?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about software, products, or structural engineering serviceability?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "aliases", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Named aliases.", "findings": [ { "id": "aliases-finding", "name": "Aliases", "description": "Aliases.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are web usability and translation tool usability, and why are serviceability and the Serviceability Limit State different?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific concept?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evaluation", "name": "Evaluation", "description": "Evaluation methods.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "testing", "name": "Testing", "description": "Usability testing.", "findings": [ { "id": "testing-finding", "name": "Testing", "description": "Testing.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is usability testing run with representative users?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "heuristics", "name": "Heuristics", "description": "Heuristic evaluation.", "findings": [ { "id": "heuristics-finding", "name": "Heuristics", "description": "Heuristics.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are Nielsen s heuristics and how are they applied?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "metrics", "name": "Metrics", "description": "Metrics.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "sus", "name": "SUS", "description": "System Usability Scale.", "findings": [ { "id": "sus-finding", "name": "SUS", "description": "SUS.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is the System Usability Scale scored?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which entry fits System Usability Scale?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "task", "name": "Task metrics", "description": "Task metrics.", "findings": [ { "id": "task-finding", "name": "Task metrics", "description": "Task metrics.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are completion rate, time on task and error rate measured?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Is the information accurate?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Related fields.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "accessibility", "name": "Accessibility", "description": "Accessibility.", "findings": [ { "id": "accessibility-finding", "name": "Accessibility", "description": "Accessibility.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do usability and accessibility standards such as WCAG relate?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "engineering", "name": "Serviceability", "description": "Structural serviceability.", "findings": [ { "id": "engineering-finding", "name": "Serviceability", "description": "Serviceability.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the serviceability limit state in structural design?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits limit state design?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "The registry aliases serviceability and Serviceability Limit State should be moved to engineering entries", "Should web usability be a separate entry?", "How should usability metrics be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a usability, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain usability, relay definitions, evaluation methods and metrics from human-computer interaction and standards sources, describe the named applications and flag misfiled engineering aliases, and distinguish usability from accessibility, user experience, utility and structural serviceability.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Web usability, serviceability, machine translation software usability, Serviceability Limit State.", "4 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 42 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a usability, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Web usability", "serviceability", "machine translation software usability", "Serviceability Limit State" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 42 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 4 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one usability from another, and a usability from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a usability sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a usability from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a usability passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a usability between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a usability, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a usability is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What usability is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of usability are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is usability operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of usability and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of usability?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as usability?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a usability came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a usability and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a usability is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a usability, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a usability, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a usability is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }