ENC 3241

Clayton Benjamin

» A product or service is usable when, “The user can do what he or she wants to do the way that he or she expects to be able to do it, without hindrance, hesitation, or questions.”

Rubin & Chisnell. “Handbook of Usability Testing Second Edition”

» Usefulness – degree to which the product enables the user to achieve his or her goals

» Efficiency – how quick the goal is achieved

» Effectiveness – the product behaves as suspected and is easy to use

» Learnability – the amount of time it takes to learn a system

» Satisfaction – the users’ perceptions, feelings and opinions about a product

» Accessibility – products are able to be used by person’s with disabilities

» “development starts with the user as the focus, taking into account the abilities and limitations of the underlying technology and the features the company has in mind to offer,” (12).

» Early focus on users

» Evaluation and measurement of product usage

» Iterated design

Rubin & Chisnell. “Handbook of Usability Testing Second Edition”

» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWc0Fd2AS3s

» Phases (requirement, development, deployment) include user input

» Multidisciplinary Teams

» Concerned, enlightened management

» A “learn as you go” perspective

» Defined usability goals and objectives

» Ethnographic Research

» Participatory Design

» Focus Group Research

» Surveys

» Walk-Throughs

» Open and Closed Card Sorting

» Paper Prototyping

» Expert or Heuristic Evaluations

» Usability Testing

» Definition: The process in which an organization gathers both quantitative and qualitative feedback from their users in order to gage how well their users can complete tasks with a certain product and highlight errors that need to be fixed in the next iteration!

» Inform design

» Eliminate Design Problems and Frustration

» Improve profitability

» Develop Research Questions

» Use sample of end users

» Represent actual work environment (?)

» Observe real users

» Controlled interviewing

» Collect quantitative and qualitative data

» Recommend improvements

» Think Aloud Protocol and Walk Through

» Surveys and Questionnaires

» Eye Tracking

» Video and Sound Recording

» Data Logging

» What to prepare!˃ Prepare a brief survey collecting ethnographic information

˃ Prepare an exit questionnaire

» What to expect!˃ Prep your user, tell them you are testing the product not them

˃ Ask your users to “think aloud”

» Record the start time, and time to completion for each step

» Record any steps the user completes incorrectly, or vocalizes they are having a problem with

» Record any errors, such as grabbing the wrong piece

» Record any interesting asides or quips