Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Chapter 10 Usability

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Usability ‣ Refers to how successfully and satisfactorily a person uses a product, document, or website ‣ Means that a product, document, or website is ‣ Easy to learn ‣ Easy to remember ‣ Efficient ‣ Satisfying ‣ Error free

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Usability focuses on the user’s interaction with a product, document, or website; it does not focus simply on the product, document, or website by itself

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Usability in the Workplace ‣ Can refer to either external or internal users ‣ Results from “usability testing” ‣ Tests the effectiveness of documents before the final document is produced

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Usability and User- Centered Design ‣ Is important because not all users are alike ‣ Considers users’ skills, particularly those that implement emerging technologies ‣ Is a means to give users the most satisfying and efficient experiences with documents or websites

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Phases in Developing Usable Documents ‣ Pre-design involves analyzing who the users are, what tasks they will need to perform, and the places in which these tasks will be performed ‣ Usability Measurement involves users testing a product or website and providing information to designers about usability issues such as learnability or ease of use. ‣ Iterative Design involves fixing problems discovered by users during the previous stage

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Usability Tests ‣ Begin with a planning session where test goals are clearly articulated and understood ‣ Must use participants who represent the specified users of the document or product ‣ Must engage in real tasks similar to those a real user would complete ‣ Must be observed and recorded by experts ‣ Must analyze the data received from the tests and change the document or website to make it more usable

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Where Usability Testing Takes Place ‣ In the lab — a controlled environment ‣ Outside the lab — any room available ‣ In the field — after a document, website, or product has been released and is being used

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Planning, Conducting, and Reporting Usability Tests

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Establish a Team ‣ Of participants to observe closely and keenly ‣ Of enough participants based on the size of the project ‣ Of members who have an interest in learning more about the usability of the document ‣ Of members each come to the project with different viewpoints

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Define Parameters ‣ Based on budget and time ‣ Based on particular issues and concerns ‣ Based on facilities available for testing ‣ Based on the audience who will look at the test results ‣ Based on other important information

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Define the User Profile ‣ By identifying the kinds of people who typically use the document or website ‣ By making it specific and narrow for the best results ‣ By defining different subgroups of users based upon frequency or expertise ‣ By considering factors like user experience, stress, attitudes, motivations

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Establish Issues & Goals ‣ By considering concerns that team members have about the document or website being tested ‣ By deciding upon a variety of central issues that guide the testing plan ‣ By understanding users and their needs, desires, and preferences ‣ By providing concrete and quantifiable means to measure test results

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Write the Test Plan ‣ To put everything down in writing ‣ To allow others to see what the test will accomplish ‣ To outline the test and its procedures ‣ To clarify the issues and goals that make up the test ‣ To show participants and timeframe

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Recruit and Screen Participants ‣ By contacting them directly or by hiring an outside consulting firm to recruit them ‣ By clearly understanding the user profile ‣ By looking for participants that fit the profile ‣ By advertising for and/or searching for participants

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Conduct the Test and Collect Data ‣ By observing the participants engaged in tasks and accurately collecting data that derives from the participants’ work ‣ By filming or using an appropriate technology ‣ By taking notes during the test on pre-made data collection sheets

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Administer Post-Test Questionnaires ‣ To allow participants to provide feedback about their experiences ‣ To solicit both qualitative and quantitative responses ‣ To provide a neutral line of questioning for answers that are not led

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Analyze Findings ‣ To find problems that the team might have overlooked ‣ To distinguish between identifying a problem and identifying the cause of a problem ‣ To determine the severity of the problems ‣ To classify the nature of problems, the causes of problems, and the severity of the problems

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Report Results and Make Recommendations ‣ By identifying the audience for the report ‣ By choosing a format for the report that fits the audience ‣ By using a cover letter, a summary, a table of contents, and appendices (when appropriate) ‣ By summarizing methodology, results and recommendations (when appropriate)

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Ethical Considerations in Usability Testing ‣ Brief participants about the test process ‣ Create unbiased questionnaires ‣ Use consent and anonymous disclosure forms ‣ Conduct testing in the field

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Website Usability Challenges ‣ Users may be hard to identify ‣ Websites do not work in a linear fashion the way traditional documents do ‣ Websites are more likely than print documents to use diverse color schemes, graphics, and images ‣ Writing styles on websites differ from traditional documents