HCI 460: Evaluating Human Computer Interaction
Fall 2008

Assignment 3
Usability Testing and Report
Due Thursday October 30 for the live section
Due Sunday November 2 for the online section

Overview

For this assignment, your group will conduct its usability test and report its findings.

The Report Format

In chapter 10 pp. 288-293 (new addition ch. 12, pp. 274 - 277), Rubin describes the sections of the final report. Your report should follow this format in addition to the following guidelines and constraints.

Executive Summary

Rubin says that this section should be kept to one page. Because your project is a more basic test, try to keep your summary down to one or two paragraphs.

Method Section

As Rubin says, this is just your test plan but revised to include any modifications that came from the pilot test. To help my review, please highlight or underline any changes that you made in your plan.

Results Section

Whereas Rubin does not mention test objectives (research questions), you should organize your results by them. In this section, list each test objective and supply the relevant results that pertain it. Of course, if your test reveals significant usability problems that do not pertain to your original objectives, you will want to describe those results too. Many of your results will be qualitative in nature and require you to provide a short description of what happened. Depending on the nature of your results, the length of this section could vary considerably, possibly from one to five pages.

Findings and Recommendations

Rubin makes some good suggestions here. Report usability is very important. If you must go into details, at least provide a short easy-to-locate statement for each finding or recommendation. Again, partially organizing this section by test objectives is helpful. This section may be as short as one page.

Submission

Final submissions should be posted through the course online (COL) web site. Copies of completed log sheets need to be submitted but may be submitted as hardcopies. Again, provide a short description of how the individual members in your group contributed to conducting the test and writing the report.

Grading

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