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Usability Research Methods

Usability Research Methods. Darlene Fichter Darlene.Fichter@usask.ca March 20, 2009. Overview. Cognitive walkthrough Affinity mapping Task based testing Ethnographic methods. Ease of use Ease of learning Fitness for purpose. What is Usability?. effective product.

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Usability Research Methods

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  1. Usability Research Methods Darlene FichterDarlene.Fichter@usask.ca March 20, 2009

  2. Overview • Cognitive walkthrough • Affinity mapping • Task based testing • Ethnographic methods

  3. Ease of use Ease of learning Fitness for purpose What is Usability? effective product

  4. Cognitive walkthrough • Development team collectively walks through the site assessing whether the visitor has the information to confidently make the next right action

  5. Steps • Describe a typical web site visitor • (Optional) Pick a task. • Ask • Would the visitor see the “choice”? • What would the visitor choose based solely on the information available on the current page

  6. Exercise • Typical visitor • 12 year old boy • Just discovered Stephen King books • He’s exhausted his local branch holdings • In the library and wants to request books

  7. When to do it? • Live site – yours and others • Mockup stage

  8. Affinity Mapping • Insight in how to organize your content from the user’s perspective

  9. Three Main Steps • List content and services on your site • Have small teams group items and label • Vote for the most important items

  10. Affinity Mapping Exercise

  11. Task Based Testing • Observe, record, and debrief 5 users will typically uncover 80% of site-level usability problems (Jakob Nielsen)

  12. Design your tasks • What do you want to know? • Construct your sample • Pre-test • When are your books are due? • Find an article about …

  13. Conducting the Study • Users are given specific tasks • Asked to talk out loud • No assistance is provided

  14. Measure and Analyze • Time • Errors • Satisfaction

  15. Exercise • Task based test

  16. Ethnographic Methods • Contextual inquiry • Retrospective interviews • Photo journal • A day in the life of …

  17. Studying Students Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester edited by Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, 2007 http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-4436

  18. Why do testing with users? Very big difference between what people say and what people do

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