CSE 510 -- Lab #3
Due: April 18
Mini-Usability Study
Purpose:
Experiment with doing very informal user testing, using the thinking aloud
technique.
Assignment:
Select a system to test, a short task to be performed, and an audience you
are interested in. This could be a piece of widely-used software, a
custom-built system, or a research prototype. Do testing with two
participants. (You can do more, but it isn't necessary.)
See Guidelines for User Testing with
Thinking Aloud for suggestions. (These guidelines are for a more
complete study, so you don't need to have a pilot study for this exercise,
or a background questionnaire, etc. But do encourage users to keep talking
using unobtrusive comments that don't point the user in a particular
direction.) Also, I recommend against using family members for this exercise.
Example:
Tax time is upon us and you decide to test
the IRS web site. You want to test whether people who have never used
the site (but have used the web) can find, download and then print the
1040EZ form. To run the test find two people who are familiar with the
web, but haven't used the IRS site. Provide them with your task
(written down on a piece of paper they can refer back to) and
observe.
Make sure that your task is short, clear and gives the user
closure. Provide the task to the user on a separate piece of paper so
they can refer back to it as necessary. You can even make it part of
a scenario. For our example a task description might be:
You've just realized you don't have time to get to the
post office and pick up tax forms. You've heard that the IRS has a
cool site so you decide to go there and download and print the 1040EZ
form. So your task is to:
1) Go to www.irs.gov (or you set this up for them in the browser)
2) Download and print the 1040EZ form
Deliverable:
Describe the system being tested, the task you selected,
how you selected the task, and how you picked the participants.
Describe the test and the results. What usability issues did you
uncover? Did you learn additional information from the second
participant? Your description should be a maximum of 5 pages, and should
probably be shorter.
Other Resources
There are a large number of resources available on usability testing. If
you are testing a web site, see
"Methods
for Designing Useable Web Sites", at
usability.gov. This page also has a
set of links to other sites dealing with web usability testing.