Usability TestingTECM 4180

Dr. Lam

What is Usability?

• 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?

What is Usability Testing?

• Evaluating a product by testing it with representative users

• Primary research method

• A way to discover whether a product itself meets its intended purpose

Benefits of Usability Testing

• 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

Usability Testing Procedure

1. Identify your target user

2.Create scenarios and tasks

3.Develop measurement instruments

4.Conduct test

5.Analyze and write results

Identify your target user…

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?

Create Scenarios and Tasks

• 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

Unrealistic/Realistic Task Examples

• User goal: Browse product offerings and purchase an item.

• Poor task: Purchase a pair of orange Nike running shoes.

• Better task: Buy a pair of shoes for under $40.

Actionable/Unactionable Task Examples

• User goal: Find movie and show times.

• Poor task: You want to see a movie Sunday afternoon. Go to www.fandango.com and tell me where you’d click next.

• Better task: Use www.fandago.com to find a movie you’d be interested in seeing on Sunday afternoon.

Avoiding Clues Example

• User goal: Look up grades.

• Poor task: You want to see the results of your midterm exams. Go to the website, sign in, and tell me where you would click to get your transcript.

• Better task: Look up the results of your midterm exams.

Come up with 3 tasks for Using MyUNT

• Write 3 tasks that are realistic, actionable, and avoid clues or describing steps

• Create a scenario for one or more tasks

Measuring Success or Failure

• 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

Conduct TestTesting 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.

Documents you’ll need

1.Demographic Questionnaire

2.Facilitator script with introduction and written scenarios and tasks

3.Data collection sheet

4.Post-test questionnaire

Let’s talk about the Final Project

• 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

• Secondary Audience: Instructors

Potential Tasks

NOTE: You’ll come up with WAY MORE SPECIFIC tasks for your usability test

• Register for an account

• Browse other proposals

• Filter/search proposals

• Propose a project

• Edit a project

• Delete a project

Usability Testing Documents

• Find templates on the Resources Page of the course website

• These are templates, which means you MUST make changes to them.

Writing the Report

• We’ll talk more about this on Wednesday!