Elizabeth SnowdonBusiness / Web Analyst Consultant

eliz.snowdon@gmail.com

� Why does usability matter

� What is usability

� Planning a usability test

� Types of usability studies

� Q&A

� Senior Business / Web Analyst Consultant

� Over 10 years experience in high-technology companies leading software implementations, usability testing and web site design projects

� Conducting usability tests since 2003

� Contact Info◦ LinkedIn:ca.linkedin.com/in/elizabethsnowdon

◦ Email: eliz.snowdon@gmail.com

� Usability can save time, money and lives

� On the web, usability is a precondition for survival

� On commercial off the shelf software applications, usability can determine market share

Signs at the time of the March 2, 2007 bus accident

� Usability Professionals Association◦ Is an approach that incorporates direct user feedback throughout the development cycle in order to reduce costs and create products and tools that meet user needs

� Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think◦ “..making sure that something works well: that a person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can use the thing --- for it’s intended purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated”

� Increased productivity

� Decreased training and support costs

� Increased sales and revenues

� Reduced development time and costs

� Reduced maintenance costs

� Increased customer satisfaction

Source: UPA.org web site

� Focus on users’ needs, tasks, and goals

� Invest in initial research and requirements◦ Identify your target audience and observe them

◦ Let users define product requirements

� Iterative design process

� Observe real target users using the system

� is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users.

� test users will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes.

� Goal ◦ identify any usability problems

◦ collect quantitative data on participants' performance

◦ determine participant's satisfaction with the product

1. Plan user tests

2. Conduct user tests

3. Analyze findings

4. Present findings

5. Modify and retest designs

� Purpose

� Problem statement/test objectives

� User profile

� Method (test design)

� Task list

� Test environment/equipment

� Test monitor role

� Evaluation measures (data to be collected)

� Report contents and presentation

Source: Rubin: "Handbook of Usability Testing", chapter 5

� Paper prototype

� HTML prototype

� Live site or application

� Competitor’s site or application

� Brand new site or application

� test early and test often

� identify problems before they get coded

� When validating claims regarding your product or against competitors

� during the development of a product

� to mould or improve the product

� Iterative

Output

� Usability problems and suggested fixes

� Highlight videos

� At the end of a development stage

� To measure or validate the usability of a product

� "How usable is this product"

� To compare against competitor products or usability metrics

� To generate data to support marketing claims about usability

Output

� Statistical measures of usability

� Reports or white papers

� Observe user behavior

� Listen to user feedback

� Facilitator stays quiet, observes, take notes

� Test one user at a time

� Mainly qualitative

� 6-8 users per test or 5 users spread over multiple tests

� little ROI in testing more than 9 users

Source:Jakob Nielsen

� Moderator / Note-taker ◦ Screen sharing: WebEx or web conferencing tool◦ Recording: Morae, Camtasia ◦ Speakerphone

� Participant◦ High speed internet access◦ Speakerphone or headset telephone

� for more info, go to Remote Testing Presentation http://bit.ly/7RYwSO

� Decide what to test◦ What are your objectives

� Recruit users◦ Who is your target audience?

◦ Write a screener

� Write tasks that meet your objectives

� Understand requirementsUnderstand requirementsUnderstand requirementsUnderstand requirements◦ What do usersusersusersusers want to accomplish?

◦ What does the companycompanycompanycompany want to accomplish?

� Determine the goalsDetermine the goalsDetermine the goalsDetermine the goals◦ What tasks does the web site or application support?

� Decide on the area of focus area of focus area of focus area of focus ◦ Tasks that have the most impact on your site

◦ Typical tasks

◦ Most critical tasks

� First impression questions◦ What is your impression of this home page or application?

� Exploratory task◦ Open-ended / research-oriented

� Directed tasks◦ Specific / answer-oriented

� Task success

� Task time

� Errors

� Efficiency◦ Number of steps required to perform a task

� Self-reported metrics◦ Likert scale

◦ Do you prefer A or B?

� Tullis, Albert (2009), Measuring the User Experience . � Rubin, Jeff (1994), Handbook of Usability Testing.� Usability.gov http://www.usability.gov/� Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/� Usability Professionals Association http://www.upassoc.org/

� Jeff Sauro – Quantitative Usability http://www.measuringusability.com/calc.php

� STC usability site http://www.stcsig.org/usability/

� Nielsen, Jakob, and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems," Proceedings of ACM INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24-29 April 1993), pp. 206-213.

� Any questions?

� Feel free to contact me at eliz.snowdon@gmail.com if have any further questions or would like to explore the idea of setting up a usability test in your organization.