Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin1/12 Usability and Testing: A method and lab demonstration Sheng-Cheng (Hans) Huang INF 385P Introduction to Usability School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin2/12 What is usability? What should we do in usability testing? An example of usability testing. A tour to the IX lab. Agenda

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin3/12 A tool that is user friendly to get things done. Designed with the users' psychology and physiology in mind (human factors and ergonamics) More efficient to use, more effective, easier to learn, and more satisfying to use. The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. -- ISO (1998) Guidance on Usability Usability

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin4/12 Functionality, Utility Effectiveness Efficiency Satisfaction Learnability, Memorability Error-free, User-centered The Three Components of Usability Usability

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin5/12 A good tool that meets usability requirements: Usability Hammer Your Thoughts into Unity – W. B. Yeats

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin6/12 Why do we need usability testing? Usability Testing VS. We need to know which one is actually better!

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin7/12 Another Reason: Save Money! An investment in usability engineering can produce a return on investment in the range of 3:1 to 100:1. Usability Testing

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin8/12 Usability testing measures the usability of the object. Usability testing usually involves a controlled experiment. Uncover difficulties. Discover errors and areas of improvement. Usability Testing What is Usability Testing?

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin9/12 Experimental design Scenarios and tasks Participant recruitment (IRB, sample size) Performance measures: time on task, accuracy, and Recall Satisfaction measures: emotional/subjective response Usability Testing Test Preparation

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin10/12 Empirical Evaluation of a Popular Cellular Phone’s Menu System: Theory Meets Practice Determine the usability of a popular cellular phone’s menu system Uncover critical factors influencing user performance in menu selection and areas of improvement. Demonstrate the validity of paper-prototyping Method Demo Huang, S., Chou, I., & Bias, R. G. (2006). Journal of Usability Studies, 2(1),

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin11/12 Method Demo A Scenario-and-task based Experiment of Paper Prototyping A repeated measure design with 19 participants comparing two menu architectures. Figure 1 and 2: The paper simulation of menu selection activities on cell phones and an example of a participant's traces of menu selections

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin12/12 Apply statistical analysis on usability measures. Identify errors and possible causes. Provide suggestions/solutions on areas of improvements. Method Demo A well designed test can:

Agenda Usability Usability Testing Method Demo IX Lab Tour 02/15/2006School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin13/12 A Typical Usability Lab can Observe users Record user behavior Analyze the data Report the results IX Lab Tour Let’s go and see what IX lab can do!