Psychometric Evaluation of the USE (Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use) Questionnaire for Reliability and Validity

The Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of Use Questionnaire (USE, Lund, 2001) measures the subjective usability of a product or service. It is a 30-item survey that examines four dimensions of usability: usefulness, ease of use, ease of learning, and satisfaction. This metric can be applied to various scenarios of usability assessment because it is non-proprietary and technology-agnostic. Items in the USE also have good face validity with unambiguous and relevant descriptions. However, little published research has reported reliability or validity of the USE. The current study aims to address this issue by investigating psychometric properties of the USE. One hundred and fifty-one participants from Mechanical Turk (MTurk) evaluated Microsoft Word and Amazon.com on the USE and the System Usability Scale (SUS, Brooke, 1996). Ignoring the four dimensions in the USE, Cronbach’s alpha was .98, which indicates high reliability of overall USE score. The scale-reliability of dropping any item was .98 in both products. In terms of correlations between the USE dimensions and the SUS, validity was statistically and practically significant ( r between .60 and .82, p < .001). System sensitivity of the USE was also demonstrated via significant t-tests on the USE scores between Microsoft Word and Amazon.com . A principal axis factor analysis revealed a four-factor model that is different from the original model. Three factors resembled the original dimensions, and a fourth factor was related to multiple dimensions. Overall, the USE is a valid and reliable instrument that needs further refinement.