Usability testing IS 403: User Interface Design Shaun Kane

Today Testing our prototypes, to fix usability bugs and make them better

“Discount usability engineering” Jakob Nielsen – Scenarios Think aloud Heuristic evaluation

Goals of usability testing See what our users’ expectations are Learn how our users think about solving a problem –Remember, we are not our users Identify confusing points in the interface

What usability testing won’t do Tell us how to fix it –Users don’t always know what they want –BUT, may identify new things to test Tell us how it will work in the real world

Your main goal Find problems! (there definitely are some) If you are not finding problems: –You might be guiding users too much –You might be providing too vague tasks –Your app might not do anything interesting

How to do it Clearly defined tasks –Bad: Search for a shoe –Good: Search for a basketball sneaker in your size as a treat for yourself Let users explore, make mistakes (don’t help them) Think aloud

How to do it Iterate: Better to test 3, revise, test 3 more than test 6 at once

Thinking aloud Essential to good usability testing Allows you to see what’s going on in the user’s head –Without interrupting them –Without requiring them to recall what they were thinking May take some practice, reminders, or a demonstration from you

Benefits of think aloud Cheap and easy to run Robust to mistakes Flexible for different fideilty prototypes, testing contexts Convincing – good support for design changes Easy to learn

Drawbacks Unnatural situation Filtered statements – users censor themselves in think aloud Possible to bias users with leading questions or behavior Not enough alone – you still need heuristic evaluation, design iteration

Live demo let’s buy some shoes

Taking notes Try to identify usability problems (or potential future problems) Some examples: –User can’t find something –User misunderstands some label or button –Can’t get there from here –User performs step in unexpected order –User gets confused or loses their place

Writing up your notes Organize by task or site area, rather than by user –Problems experienced by >1 user are especially important! Make sure to note –Task the user is trying to perform –What actually happened –Your interpretation of the problem –Relevant comments from think-aloud –Later: Design suggestions

Let’s get some practice Pair up with someone Let’s test our A6 prototypes 10 minutes per person Take notes and report back