HCI 440: Usability Engineering

Fall 2004

Team Project 4

Revised design and prototypes

Due Thursday November 11 for in-class section

Due Monday November 15 for DL section

Overview

For this assignment, you will revise your designs based on the results from your usability tests. Your revised design should be realized as a software-based prototype. While the prototype does not need to be fully implemented, it should provide enough interaction to support a usability test.

Usability Testing

During class on Thursday October 28, students of the in-class section will run usability tests on their paper prototypes. I will review this process in class and video record some of the tests so that DL students can review them.

In-class students will need to conduct additional tests on their own time. DL students conduct their tests when it is convenient to them, but they may want to wait until they can review the tests conducted during class (probably posted 4 days later). Ideally a test should be conducted by the whole team, but individually conducting tests is also permissible and may be necessary in some cases.

The tests should involve at least 4 different participants and at least one of these participants should not have a technical or HCI background.

Summarizing the test results

From your notes, create a summary of these results. Generally, these results will be qualitative data that describes where people had difficulty in completing their tasks. The results may also include comments and feedback from the participants.

Redesign the prototype

Based on the test results, modify your design so that it addresses any discovered usability problems. At this point, the prototype should be developed in software. While you may choose the technology, it will probably be easiest to develop the prototypes using HTML and Javascript. The prototype does not need to be fully functional! However, the prototype should be detailed enough to allow for a demonstration of how a functional system would work.

Contents of your report

Prepare a report with the following contents:

• Executive summary. This summary is a high-level description of the revised design. Briefly describe the purpose of the site, its overall structure and the design of your prototype. In the last paragraph, describe any major revisions you made based on the test results. The summary should be two or three paragraphs in length.
• Test Design. Provide a summary of how the usability test was conducted. List the usability goals and the test scenarios that were prepared from the last project. Explain how the test was conducted and what kinds of results were collected. Indicate how many participants were conducted and descriptions of who they were (but no names!). Refer to the script in the appendix.
• Results. Summarize the results of the usability test. This section should focus on what happened without offering any reasons or solutions. Here are some examples, taken from fictitious tests:
  • 3 out of 4 users selected the link labeled "Go" before they succeeded in selecting the link (labeled "Start") that took them to the desired task.
  • None of the 4 users realized that they had successfully finished their task.
  • All 4 users successfully completed the file upload task.
  • One user commented that the product provides a particularly useful task that she would like to perform in her daily work.
  • All 4 users responded that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the functionality provided by the product.
• Findings and solutions. Summarize any changes in your design and how they address the results.
• Appendix. Include the script you used for administering the usability test. It must include wording for obtaining informed consent and wording for asking participants to do the tasks.
• Contribution of team members.

Submission

Submit a softcopy of your report to the DL Web. Either attach your designs or provide a link to access them.

Grading

I will use this grading sheet to help me review the project.