COAP:COAP-2170/week2

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COAP 2170 Week 2 program

(provisional)

Monday - Usability testing and user satisfaction

(1) Administration
  • Catching up (new students(
(2) Introduction to usability testing
  • Introductory videos and texts
Demo Usability Test by Steve Krug, Author of "Don't make me think!" (important introduction)
  • Introductions for people who like short texts
Usability Test Moderation: The Comic. A copy is available here (password protected). Probably also on the N: drive.
Usability testing on 10 cents a day by Steve Krug
(3) Introduction to usability testing methodology and tools
Design and usability methods and techniques (FYI, overview page for various methods and tools)
Personas and their use in cognitive walkthroughs. We shall have a look at at set of Personas
usability testing (short overview of "classic" usability testing)
Example of a short test (Word, at usability.gov)
Low-fi (low cost) vs. expensive detailed testing.
Short presentation of heuristic evaluation
(3a) Userfocus Datalogger user testing tool
This tool allows to simple task-based usability tests. In addition, you can administer a satisfaction questionnaire.
Download Usability Test Data Logger tool (Excel file in a resource page) from UserFocus.
  • Save the file in some appropriate place
  • On Windows, you will have to enable macros, otherwise configurations, menus, etc. will not work !
  • Start by filling in the first page of the excel workbook (click on all check boxes and in particular make sure that users are configured as they should). We will give a demo in the classroom.
  • Documentation: Download the datalogger manual (PDF)]
(3b) Livelogger demo (if I can manage to get it working)
Please copy the folder from the N: drive/coap2170 (this software is not publicly available)
(3c) Hands on usability testing
  • Configuration of the Datalogger and/or the Livelogger tool and collective task analysis walk-through example, e.g. obtaining information about web.
(4) Satisfaction questionnaires
If time left, we will do it with respect to Webster web sites.

Wednesday - Usability testing (II)

Usability testing hands-on

We shall do some lo-fi usability testing in pairs.

(1) Each student prepares a list of 3-5 tasks. Take a sheet of paper and write down:

  • Task in one sentence
  • Text that you are going to read to the subject
  • Explicit success criteria

(2) Student A will do and student B will observe. After a round of testing we will switch roles. Student A must not be familiar with the Website.

For each task, record something like:

  • Time it took
  • Success and failure: How easy/difficult was it ?
  • Important incidents and remarks made by the subject
  • Your summary of the task testing
  • Your confidence in the results

Homework 2

Prepare a usability review (see also week 3)

  • Either finish the usability test started in class on Wednesday or test Webster Geneva with a non-webster person (this is your choice, doing a analysis of Webster Geneva with a "foreign" person is a more interesting exercise)
  • Do at least three tests/tasks with two users (plus one pilot)
  • Make sure to produce meaningful data that could be used in a usability review
  • Upload the data files and/or the report to the worldclassroom as homework 2
  • Use any data logging tool you like, but we suggest using either the ones presented in the classroom or taking notes on paper and then writing it up.

On Monday week three we will discuss both hw1 and hw outcomes and:

  • Present highlights from hw1 (usability guidelines-based review of Webster Geneva)
  • Present highlights from homework 2
  • Present the SUS survey results (if available) SUS satisfaction questionnaire

To fix in a new edition of this class

  • Tell students to include (a) an introduction that justifies the tests plus (b) a conclusion that summarizes the results and discusses these.