digital capture for usability testing…and more! janet yanosko and sara memmott university of...
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Digital Capture for Usability Testing…and more!Janet Yanosko and Sara Memmott
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Digital Capture for Usability Testing…and more!
Need: Revise library web site Tool: Usability testing using digital capture Result: Improved web site and an application
that can be used for other user studies
Testing Timeline
Research, reading, and planningOct 2002-Feb 2003
Human subject approvalMarch 2003
User testing of other library web sites, using digital captureApril 2003
Testing Timeline - 2
Testing draft site with static images and key pages September 2003
New site went publicJanuary 2003
Retested and revised site July – August 2004
Digital Capture
Cheap – already had what we needed Easy for small staff No video camera; not threatening to users Easier to interact with users during test Portable
Testing other library sites
Get user input before spending time designing. Used libraries that had done user testing
and/or had features we liked:• University of Arizona• University of Massachusettes\Amherst• University of Oregon• University of California Santa-Cruz
Equipment
Encoding software – Helix Producer Basic 9.0 2 ordinary PCs, available for other uses when not
testing Encoding PC
• Osprey 210 Multimedia capture card (~$180) Subject PC
• S-video out capable video card ATI All-in-Wonder Pro (~$180)
Microphone for recording audio
People
Library tech – set up hardware & software 2 librarians for each user testing session 3-4 users per test.
• $10-$15 gift certificate each
Studying User Research Behavior
FERA (Formative Evaluation Research Associates) conducted interviews and recorded students demonstrating typical research behavior.
Observations were found to be more valuable than interviews
Captured what students actually do when they sit down to do research
Online Tutorials
Demonstrate use of library databases, finding resources on the web site, etc.
Segmented tutorials can be made quickly. Easily updated as web site or databases
change.
Top Tips for Usability Testing
1. Find out if you need approval to test human subjects.
2. Keep it short: three tests will give you the information you need.
3. Keep it simple: do testing with a rough draft/mockup
Top Tips for Usability Testing
4. Use your coworkers as guinea pigs.
5. Offer subjects incentives, such as gift certificates.
6. Make sure your subjects realize that it’s the website and not them being evaluated.
Top Tips for Usability Testing
7. If test subjects are quiet, prompt them. Ask them to explain what they see or why they clicked on a link.
8. If the test subjects are having trouble finding something on the screen, don’t let it go on so long that they get frustrated. Let them know it’s ok and move on to the next question.