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 planning Oct 2002-Feb 2003  Human subject approval March 2003  User testing of other library web sites, using digital capture April 2003

Testing Timeline - 2  Testing draft site with static images and key pages September 2003  New site went public January 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

Before – January 2003

Draft – September 2003

Revision – August 2004

Today

Other Applications  Investigating user research behavior  Tutorials

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.