Are non-expert usability evaluations valuable ?

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of having non-expert evaluators evaluating an interactive web service independently in a remote location without recording or control conducted by the researchers. The results show that the non-experts were capable of reporting usability problems on the interface but had difficulties in reporting usability problems related to interactivity with the system. The non-expert evaluators give designers valuable information about users’ individual reactions to the service while working in their own environment and they could be used as an additional resource in usability evaluations.