uTest | Software Testing. Remote Usability Tutorial | Bolt | Peters. February 16th, 2005 This is our most popular and exciting way of observing your customers as they use a web application. We've developed an innovative way of conducting moderated one-on-one usability sessions over the internet. Since participants never leave their home or office, their behavior is more true than with in-lab studies. Best of all, this is all done while reducing turnaround time!
Step 1: Setup Step 2: Recruiting users With online recruiting, users are recruited directly from your site. Step 3: Set up the online screen observation In order to watch the participants as they use your web site, you'll have to see their browser window. After participants join the meeting and are sharing their webpages, direct them back to the live site, prototypes, mock-ups, etc. Step 4: Conduct the session You're now ready to run the users through the session (remember to make sure the camera is recording and you're getting sound). Step 5: Analysis and recommendations. The Culture of Usability | Dr. Dobb's | July 2, 2002. Usability Testing of World Wide Web Sites (US Dept of Labor)
Michael D. Levi and Frederick G. Conrad Background Building a medium or large World Wide Web site, whether for distribution over the Internet or over an intranet, can and should be viewed as a major software development effort. As in any other software development project, a central role must be played by task experts — in this case staff familiar with the content being presented. Staff versed in traditional publishing can also contribute a great deal. But designing a structure sufficient to hold hundreds or thousands of static documents and possibly scores of embedded applications, not to speak of configuring and maintaining a Web server, building and maintaining a document repository, keeping hypertext links up to date, or writing and maintaining Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts and Java or ActiveX applets, is what systems analysts are trained to do. · Ease of learning · Retention of learning over time · Speed of task completion · Error rate · Subjective user satisfaction Card Sorting.
Practical Usability Testing (Joshua Kaufman) The web professional's online magazine of choice. In: Columns > Information Architecture for the People By Joshua Kaufman Published on February 13, 2006 When I started this column, part of my motivation was to write about tools to empower Web designers—techniques they could take away and apply immediately. I’ve written an article on how information architecture can be a natural progression from Web design and two articles containing short lessons to help new information architects be more effective on the job. My next several articles will focus on core information architecture practices and how Web designers and new information architects can use them effectively. I’ll focus on practical tips and keep the theory to a minimum. Usability testing should be an iterative practice, completed several times during the design and development life-cycle. The first article in this series is on one of my favorite practices: usability testing.
Planning a Test What Are You Going to Test? Short. Legalities. Usability Testing (Web Design & Usability) - Constance J Petersen. Home Articles We've Written Usability Testing By Constance J. Petersen for Borland's DevNews Copyright 1999 Inprise Corp. Help visitors navigate your Web site by removing stumbling blocks in advance.
A well-planned trial run can prevent problems before they arise. Shopping the other day on garden.com, I selected one item to purchase and continued browsing. I looked for a link labeled "check out," but there was no such link on the page. Obvious? Note: After this article was written, garden.com was acquired by Burpee seeds, and it now provides a standard shopping cart icon and text. I've noticed a strong new interest in usability testing, thanks to the growth of the Web. In its simplest form, usability testing requires only three ingredients: an application or Web site, a usability tester, and an observer. Note that usability testers are not the same as software testers whose job is to find bugs in the program.
Be prepared Trial run Time, cost, and videotape. The Code Project - Usability Testing (Mat Gullett) Usability Testing: Why you only need to test with 5 users (Jakob Nielsen) 8 guidelines for usability testing (WebCredible) In professional web design circles, the usability testing session has become an essential component of any major project. Similar to focus groups in brand development and product launches, usability testing offers a rare opportunity to receive feedback from the very people the website is aimed at - before it's too late to do anything about it.
But how can you get the most from these usability testing sessions? 1. Choosing your subjects As with any market research project, the results will only be as good as the people you test. 2. As with everything in life, first impressions are vital. Provide clear instructions on how to get to the usability testing location, and if necessary meet the participants at local stations. After the initial greeting and welcoming drinks, there are always legal forms that must be signed. 3. Before diving into key tasks, get the user familiar with the environment. Next, let them look at the website they are testing. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. WDVL: Usability Testing in Practice. The Usability Company | Web Usability Consultancy UK.