Is your Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) software easy to use and learn?  Or, is your HMIS software difficult to use and learn?  Ever wish there was a "Yelp" for HMIS software?  

The System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a quick, easy, and reliable tool for measuring the usability of software.   It consists of a 10 item questionnaire with five response options for respondents; from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree.  Originally created by John Brooke in 1986, it allows you to evaluate a wide variety of products and services, including hardware, software, mobile devices, websites and applications.  (more about SUS here:  https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/system-usability-scale.html)

Our Continuum of Care Board (NC-502) has found it difficult to objectively evaluate the usability of our HMIS software.   Our CoC and other CoCs across the country may be able to benefit from completing the SUS and aggregating and publically sharing the results with all CoCs.

This survey should be completed by anyone who routinely uses an HMIS software platform.  The survey does not ask for the respondents name or the name of the organization the respondent is associated with.  The survey asks for the name of the CoC in which the respondent operates, the name of the HMIS software platform, and some basic (non-identifying) information about use of and experience with HMIS.

Our plan is to use the evaluation specifications outlined in the SUS to better inform our CoC as it relates to the usability of our HMIS software product.  We will share the results publically and will share the raw data with anyone who requests it.