Measuring the User Experience

System Usability Scale (SUS) Resources

by Tom Tullis
Originally posted August 16, 2018; Last updated Sept. 3, 2018

The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a ten-item rating scale for measuring perceived usability. It was created by John Brooke while he was working at Digital Equipment Corporation in 1986 in the U.K. Since then it has been used been in over 1,200 published studies measuring the usability of things as diverse as websites, mobile apps, desktop apps, various kinds of devices, interactive voice response systems, and many more.

Here are the 10 statements used in SUS:
  1. I think that I would like to use this system frequently.
  2. I found the system unnecessarily complex.
  3. I thought the system was easy to use.
  4. I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system.
  5. I found the various functions in this system were well integrated.
  6. I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system.
  7. I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly.
  8. I found the system very cumbersome/awkward to use.
  9. I felt very confident using the system.
  10. I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system.
Respondents rate their level of agreement with each statement on a scale from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 5 ("Strongly Agree"). Note that half the statements are positively worded and half are negatively worded.

Here are some SUS resources that you might find useful:

And here are links to some other articles and studies about SUS: