Overview

User Research methods

• Traditional interview
• Contextual interview
• Personas
• Usage scenarios

Evaluation methods

• Heuristic evaluation
• Cognitive walkthrough (standard and streamlined version)
• Usability test
  • Exploratory test
  • Assessment test
  • Validation test
  • Comparison test
  • Think-aloud variant
• Questionnaire (including post-test questionnaire)
• Interview (e.g. during the debriefing)
• GOMS hierarchical analysis
• GOMS Keystroke level model
• Cognitive modeling
• Automatic methods
  • Rule-based checking (e.g. accessibility standards with AccessEnable)
  • Web access log analysis (e.g. Lumberjack with the Information Scent Project)
  • User modeling and simulation (e.g. Bloodhound with the Information Scent Project)
  • Automated data collection (e.g. Camtasia, pop-windows that collect user comments)

Characterizing the evaluation methods

• When
• Where
• Level of needed expertise
• Which usability objectives (e.g. Usefulness, Effectiveness, Learnability, Attitute)
• Cost (resources, time, number of practitioners)
• Requires human participants?
• Type of method
  • Nielsen and Mack categories (automatically, empirically, formally and informally)
  • Direct (e.g. observation) versus indirect (e.g. user query)
• Level of detail (e.g. broad overview versus focussed specifics)