[seanmcdirmid]

Running any study with real humans is very expensive. We can measure simple things empirically (eg reaction time), but trying to measure something such has “cognitive load” is probably impossible, and what is a usability metric? Do those already exist for PL or so they need to be invented somehow?

We (PL researchers) think about this a lot, but so far no one has come up with any good answers on how to empirically measure PL usability for an entire PL (vs chipping off small features to evaluate). At best, we can run qualitative studies with little in the way of rigor.