For this assignment, your group will be preparing a usability test on the application from your previous projects. Your test should approximately correspond to what Rubin calls an assessment test. On a working system, you will be identifying usability problems and determining the amount of user satisfaction and interest for the product. The test plan should be short and simple, thus allowing you to better reflect on its goals, design and limitations. For each participant, you should plan on approximately ten to fifteen minutes of interaction time that, when added to greeting, instructions and debriefing, provides for a half-hour session.
In chapter 5, Rubin provides a model format (outline on p. 83) for a usability test plan. You should also follow this format in creating your plan. The following provides additional requirements, guidelines and suggestions for completing each stage.
This statement may be one or two sentences that addresses the need to determine the application's usability problems and interest to potential users. You are welcome to invent some story as to why your group would want to do this (e.g. your company might want to buy and use this product, or the application's developers have asked you to evaluate it).
In this section, you provide the specifics of what your group will be looking for. The heuristic evaluation and the cognitive walkthrough can help you provide these specifics. For your plan, list three to six test objectives in the form of questions, one to two sentences each. At least one of these objectives needs to address the user satisfaction of the product.
Identifying good test objectives is critical for planning and conducting usability tests. See Figure 5.1 for examples. I strongly encourage you to discuss your proposed objectives with me before you proceed with the rest of your planning.
Your user profile should be based on the research from your previous projects. You may choose to focus on one user segment and the tasks associated with these users.
Keep the design simple. When describing your procedure (which includes greeting, instructions, debriefing, etc.), refer to scripts and checklists, but append these materials to the end of the test plan. Start with a short overview of your design (a few sentences) before writing out the details (a few paragraphs). Make sure you specify the testing roles of your group members.
In addition to one pilot run, your group needs to run tests with at least four participants. Ideally, some of your recruits will come from outside of class.
The set of tasks should last approximately 15 minutes. It may be one long task or a set of small tasks. If it is several tasks, state and motivate their order.
The room and equipment will be similar to Rubin's simple single-room setup without the video camera. A short paragraph should be adequate here. The pilot test will be held in room 804 in the CTI building. You may hold the additional tests in a location convenient to your group.
Here your group determines and explains how much the test monitor interacts with and helps the participant.
Decide what data your group will record in order to address the test's objectives. The data may be qualitative or quantitative. Creating and submitting a blank log sheet would be a good addition to your test plan, which you could place in the appendix and summarize in this section. Evaluating the user's satisfaction with the product will probably involve a post-test questionnaire.
This can be a summary paragraph anticipating what conclusions your final report will address. It includes explaining how the evaluation measures will address the test objectives.
These include consent forms, scripts, questionnaires, checklists and blank log sheets. They need to be prepared and turned as an appendix to the test plan. Also provide a short description of how the individual members in your group contributed to the test plan.
Submit the entire report through dlweb.
The grading principles from the last project still apply. Note that the guidelines and requirements listed above are in addition to the instructions and example in the Rubin text.
I will use this grading sheet to help me review the project.