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Usability testing

Usability testing. IS 403: User Interface Design Shaun Kane. Today. Testing our prototypes, to fix usability bugs and make them better. “Discount usability engineering”. Jakob Nielsen http:// www.nngroup.com /articles/guerrilla- hci / Scenarios Think aloud Heuristic evaluation.

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Usability testing

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  1. Usability testing IS 403: User Interface Design Shaun Kane

  2. Today Testing our prototypes, to fix usability bugs and make them better

  3. “Discount usability engineering” • Jakob Nielsen • http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guerrilla-hci/ • Scenarios • Think aloud • Heuristic evaluation

  4. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guerrilla-hci/

  5. Goals of usability testing • See what our users’ expectations are • Learn how our users think about solving a problem • Remember, we are not our users • Identify confusing points in the interface

  6. What usability testing won’t do • Tell us how to fix it • Users don’t always know what they want • BUT, may identify new things to test • Tell us how it will work in the real world

  7. Your main goal • Find problems! (there definitely are some) • If you are not finding problems: • You might be guiding users too much • You might be providing too vague tasks • Your app might not do anything interesting

  8. How to do it • Clearly defined tasks • Bad: Search for a shoe • Good: Search for a basketball sneaker in your size as a treat for yourself • Let users explore, make mistakes (don’t help them) • Think aloud

  9. How to do it Iterate: Better to test 3, revise, test 3 more than test 6 at once

  10. Thinking aloud • Essential to good usability testing • Allows you to see what’s going on in the user’s head • Without interrupting them • Without requiring them to recall what they were thinking • May take some practice, reminders, or a demonstration from you

  11. Benefits of think aloud Cheap and easy to run Robust to mistakes Flexible for different fideilty prototypes, testing contexts Convincing – good support for design changes Easy to learn

  12. Drawbacks Unnatural situation Filtered statements – users censor themselves in think aloud Possible to bias users with leading questions or behavior Not enough alone – you still need heuristic evaluation, design iteration

  13. Live demolet’s buy some shoes

  14. Taking notes • Try to identify usability problems (or potential future problems) • Some examples: • User can’t find something • User misunderstands some label or button • Can’t get there from here • User performs step in unexpected order • User gets confused or loses their place

  15. Writing up your notes • Organize by task or site area, rather than by user • Problems experienced by >1 user are especially important! • Make sure to note • Task the user is trying to perform • What actually happened • Your interpretation of the problem • Relevant comments from think-aloud • Later: Design suggestions

  16. http://www.indiana.edu/~usable/reports/acc_report.pdf

  17. http://www.indiana.edu/~usable/reports/acc_report.pdf

  18. http://www.scribd.com/doc/92602002/Yelp-Usability-Test-Report-FINALhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/92602002/Yelp-Usability-Test-Report-FINAL

  19. Let’s get some practice Pair up with someone Let’s test our A6 prototypes 10 minutes per person Take notes and report back

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