Download Usability Testing

TECM 4180
Dr. Lam
Project
Skills
Knowledge base
• Writing (concisely, structured, etc.)
• Primary/secondary research (interviews,
audience profiling, etc.)
• Structuring information (site mapping, card
sorting)
Infographic
• Visual storytelling
• Using visuals effectively
• Interpreting and applying novel data sets
Video tutorial
• Creating technical material in a new medium
• Planning, recording and editing video
• Considering the impact of multimedia on
learning
 Usability testing allows you to conduct primary research
 Usability testing allows you to analyze and synthesize your data in a formal written
report
 A quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use
 Learnability – Ease of use the first time
 Efficiency – Once they’ve learned, how quick can they perform?
 Memorability – How quick can they reestablish proficiency?
 Errors – How many and what type of errors?
 Satisfaction – How pleasant is it to use the design?
 Evaluating a product by testing it with representative users
 Primary research method
 A way to discover whether a product itself meets its intended purpose
 Learn if participants are able to complete specified tasks successfully
 Identify how long it takes to complete specified tasks
 Find out how satisfied participants are with your product
 Identify changes required to improve user performance and satisfaction
 Analyze the performance to see if it meets your usability objectives
1.
Identify your target user
2.
Create scenarios and tasks
3.
Develop measurement instruments
4.
Conduct test
5.
Analyze and write results
Answer the following questions:
1.
What is the demographic of people that would most likely use this product?
(Age, gender, etc.)
2.
What is the prior knowledge of the target user?
 Tasks are the things your user needs to accomplish
 Tasks should be realistic
 Tasks should be Actionable
 Tasks should be refrain from using clues or describing steps
Your engineering team has built the honeywell space heater. They have asked you to
test this heater to determine whether any changes need to be made to the user
interface.
 Determine a realistic audience for this usability test
 Come up with two scenarios (use cases) for the Honeywell space heater
 Come up with two tasks for the Honeywell space heater (make sure they are
realistic, actionable, and avoid clues)
You have been hired by UNT to test the MyUNT class registration system. UNT is
interested in the results of a usability test to determine what parts of the class
registration system needs to be redesigned
 Determine a realistic audience
 Create two scenarios for this usability test
 Write 3 tasks that are realistic, actionable, and avoid clues or describing steps
 Objective
 Scenario Completion (yes/no)
 Critical Errors (count them) – occur when a user can’t complete a task, gets wrong
data/information, or needs the facilitator to help them complete a task.
 Non-critical errors (count them) – occur when a user goes through a procedure incorrectly but
still manages to complete the task.
 Time on task (in minutes and seconds)
 Subjective (collected through questionnaire)
 Ease of use
 Satisfaction
 Think-aloud Protocol - Ask user to narrate their thought process
Testing roles: facilitator and recorder
1.
Tester completes demographic questionnaire.
2.
Facilitator introduces test and reads scenario to user
3.
Facilitator informs the user that the test is on the product and on the user.
4.
Tester completes the tasks and thinks-aloud.
5.
Recorder records objective data and interesting phrases.
6.
Tester completes questionnaire.
1.
Demographic Questionnaire
2.
Facilitator script with introduction and written scenarios and tasks
3.
Data collection sheet
4.
Post-test questionnaire
 Your job is to conduct a usability test on a piece of software that requires a user to
complete multiple tasks (your choice). If you don’t want to come up with your own,
you may use a system I developed.
 You will work in groups of 2-3. You may choose to opt-out of a group and work
alone.
Deliverables
 WBS and project schedule
 Usability test with at least 3 participants
 Final usability test report
 http://bold.heroku.com
 Purpose: A site to allow business owners to propose projects for technical communication




courses at UNT.
Secondary purpose: A site to allow instructors to view proposed projects and decide
whether to use them in their courses
Tertiary Purpose: A way to create lasting relationships between business owners and the
department.
Primary Audience: Business Owners/managers who have technical communication
needs.
Secondary Audience: Instructors
 A business owner needs a new set of procedures written for their HR onboarding
process.
 They hear about UNT allowing students to work on projects.
 They go to the website, read about the partnership program with UNT’s TC
program, and then complete a proposal form to propose the project.
 They wait to hear from the UNT TC department to see whether their proposal is
accepted.
 An instructor of TC needs a client project for a class she is teaching next Fall.
 She logs into the BOLD system and views all of the unclaimed projects.
 She contacts the business owner attached to the submitted proposal.
 She changes the status of the proposal to match the course she is teaching.
 Find templates on the Resources Page of the course website
 These are templates, which means you MUST make changes to them.
 We’ll talk more about this on Wednesday!