BENCHMARKING USABILITY PERFORMANCE

Jennifer Romano Bergstrom, Ph.D. UX Research Leader Fors Marsh Group

George Mason University Dec 9 , 2014

WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE?

+ emotions and perceptions = UX

Usability = “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” ISO 9241-11

USABILITY & USER EXPERIENCE

useful

valuable

desirable

accessible

trustworthy

engaging

usable

The 5 Es to Understanding Users (W. Quesenbery): http://www.wqusability.com/articles/getting-started.html

WHEN TO TEST

WHEN TO TEST

Benchmark

WHY TEST

WHY BENCHMARK?‣ Provide a framework of current website performance ‣ Compare metrics in future testing

WHY DO IT?‣ Ensure you’re solving a problem that exists ‣ Ensure you’re building a product that is tailored to its audience ‣ Ensure that your product solution aligns to behaviors

WHY TEST

WHERE TO TEST

•  Controlled environment

•  All participants have the same experience

•  Record and communicate from control room

•  Observers watch from control room and provide additional probes (via moderator) in real time

•  Incorporate physiological measures (e.g., eye tracking, EDA)

•  No travel costs

LABORATORY REMOTE IN THE FIELD •  Participants tend to be

more comfortable in their natural environments

•  Recruit hard-to-reach populations (e.g., children, doctors)

•  Moderator travels to various locations

•  Bring equipment (e.g., eye tracker)

•  Natural observations

•  Participants in their natural environments (e.g., home, work)

•  Use video chat (moderated sessions) or online programs (unmoderated)

•  Conduct many sessions quickly

•  Recruit participants in many locations (e.g., states, countries)

HOW TO TEST

•  In-depth feedback from each participant

•  No group think

•  Can allow participants to take their own route and explore freely

•  No interference

•  Remote in participant’s environment

•  Flexible scheduling

•  Qualitative and Quantitative

ONE-ON-ONE SESSIONS FOCUS GROUPS SURVEYS •  Representative

•  Large sample sizes

•  Collect a lot of data quickly

•  No interviewer bias

•  No scheduling sessions

•  Quantitative analysis

•  Participants may be more comfortable with others

•  Interview many people quickly

•  Opinions collide

•  Peer review

•  Qualitative

WHAT TO MEASURE

WHAT TO MEASURE

Benchmark

EXAMPLE IN-LAB ONE-ON-ONE METHODS Co

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Example Methodology Participants: •  N = 74 | Average Age = 37 •  Mix of gender, ethnicity, income •  Random assignment to diary condition

•  New, Old, Prototype, Bilingual

Usability Testing session: •  Participants read a description of the

study. •  The moderator gave instructions and

calibrated the eye tracker. •  Participants completed Steps 1-5 in the

diary at their own pace. •  End-of-session satisfaction questionnaire •  Debriefing interview

Eye Tracker

Moderators worked from another room.

Control Room

Slide from: Walton, L., Romano Bergstrom, J., Hawkins, D. & Pierce, C. (2014). User Experience and Eye-Tracking Study: Paper Diary Design Decisions. Paper presentation at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference, Anaheim, CA, May 2014.

EXAMPLE IN-LAB ONE-ON-ONE METHODS Co

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2013**The

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mpany.*Con

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Example Methodology Participants: •  N = 74 | Average Age = 37 •  Mix of gender, ethnicity, income •  Random assignment to diary condition

•  New, Old, Prototype, Bilingual

Usability Testing session: •  Participants read a description of the

study. •  The moderator gave instructions and

calibrated the eye tracker. •  Participants completed Steps 1-5 in the

diary at their own pace. •  End-of-session satisfaction questionnaire •  Debriefing interview

Eye Tracker

Moderators worked from another room.

Control Room

Slide from: Walton, L., Romano Bergstrom, J., Hawkins, D. & Pierce, C. (2014). User Experience and Eye-Tracking Study: Paper Diary Design Decisions. Paper presentation at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference, Anaheim, CA, May 2014.

No Think Aloud in

Benchmark studies: We want a pure measure of

performance

PREPARATION

‣ What are the most important things users should be able to do on this site? ‣ Most frequent ‣ Most important (e.g., registration)

‣ Tasks should be clear and unambiguous and in the user’s language (no jargon).

‣ Don’t prompt the solution.

CREATE TASKS

PREPARATION

TASK SCENARIO EXAMPLE‣ “You want to book a romantic holiday for you and your partner for Valentine’s day. How would you do that?” !

‣ “Use this site to…” is even better. It is a task. You can measure behavior. !

‣ NOT: Go to the home page of romanticholidays.com and click “sign up now” then click “Valentine’s day.”

PREPARATION

THINGS TO AVOID‣ Asking participants to predict the future

‣ Asking if a participant would use something like X or might enjoy X feature is not productive

‣ Instead, ask about current behavior (do you currently do X?) or show them something and observe how they interact with it

PREPARATION

THINGS TO AVOID‣ Leading people

‣ Let them make their own mistakes; that is valuable ‣ If you give the answers, you’ll never learn what you need to learn

‣ AVOID: ‣ Telling people what to do or explaining how it works ‣ “Is there anywhere else you would click?” ‣ “Go ahead and click on that…”

PREPARATION

THINGS TO AVOID‣ Bias

‣ Try to remain neutral, even if the person is really funny or mean ‣ Use open-ended questions to understand perceptions

‣ AVOID: ‣ Testing friends ‣ Acting differently with different participants ‣ “Did you like it?” ‣ “Interesting.” ‣ “Now we are going to work with this awesome page.”

PREPARATION

THINGS TO AVOID‣ Interrupting

‣ You don’t want to interfere with what participants would normally do on their own

‣ Wait until the end to ask follow-up questions ‣ AVOID:

‣ Probing mid-task ‣ “Why?”

PREPARATION

THINGS TO AVOID‣ Explaining the purpose

‣ Your job is to pull as much information as possible ‣ Your job is not to explain how it works ‣ “What do you think it is for?” ‣ “What would you do if I was not here?”

‣ AVOID: ‣ Explaining how to find information ‣ Explaining the purpose of the product

ANALYZING RESULTS

USABILITY & UX TESTING

COMPARE TO GOALS‣ It is a good idea to set goals (e.g., 90% of participants should be able to register in less than one minute).

‣ Keep results simple so people will use them and appreciate them. ‣ Compare performance to goals ‣ In future iterations, compare performance to benchmark

ANALYZING RESULTS

OUTPUTS‣ Notes, data, video/audio recordings ‣ Usability labs will create full reports (doc or PPT) ‣ Unmoderated tests may provide data reports and recorded sessions.

‣ When writing research notes, remember to: ‣ Report good and bad findings ‣ Stick to what you observed in the test

‣ Use the data!

ANALYZING RESULTS

BENCHMARKING USABILITY PERFORMANCE

THANK YOU!Jennifer Romano Bergstrom, Ph.D. Fors Marsh Group jbergstrom@forsmarshgroup.com @romanocog

Links to more info: EdUI slides (see other slides on Slideshare too) Eye Tracking in UX Design