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CV_SEC
Newcomer II

Citation needed - usability triangle

Including the usability triangle in an academic paper (the graphic which occurs in many forms).

I have found the graphic in great number of documents, blogs and articles. But none have provided a source for citation. Obviously using something so prolific without citation in my academic assignment is likely to garner a plagiarism charge.

 

Anyone have ANY source I can cite for this graphic or the basis of the original concept. I know it is included in many CEH courses but also suspect it has roots in a CYBOK.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

2 Replies
tmekelburg1
Community Champion

Still can't find when it was all placed in a triangle but I did find the original paper of when ease of use was first published in 1975. I know it's not what you were looking for but still interesting all the same. I think you'll be fine to use a secondary source in this instance though.

 

h) Psychological acceptability: It is essential that the human interface be designed for ease of use, so that users routinely and automatically apply the protection mechanisms correctly. Also, to the extent that the user's mental image of his protection goals matches the mechanisms he must use, mistakes will be minimized. If he must translate his image of his protection needs into a radically different specification language, he will make errors.

 

Saltzer and Schroeder, The Protection of Information in Computer Systems (virginia.edu)

Manuscript received October 11, 1974; revised April 17. 1975. Copyright © 1975 by J. H. Saltzer.

CV_SEC
Newcomer II

Tony, Thanks for the reply. I did have the resource you provided but was using in a different context. But you helped me see that it could be the only citation I'll find other than the many secondary uses of the triangle in a multitude of documents and web pages since with no attribution at all.

 

I did find several CEH course texts did include it as the earliest reference in a google search. I agree that in this case, I'm likely safe citing one of the secondary sources I used. (Especially since my instructor used it in a session without attribution)

 

Appreciate the quick response.

 

Regards