{"id":149,"date":"2012-03-28T19:49:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T19:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/?p=149"},"modified":"2012-03-28T19:54:16","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T19:54:16","slug":"usability-testing-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/2012\/03\/28\/usability-testing-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"Usability Testing Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The kind folks who run the Carterette Series Webinars<\/a> for the Georgia Library Association invited me to do a presentation on usability testing basics. I just finished up an hour ago and wanted to share my slides as soon as possible. The webinar recording will be archived and freely available soon (check the archived sessions page<\/a>). In the meanwhile, here are my slides:<\/p>\n

\n

Usability Testing Basics<\/a><\/strong><\/object><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If you want to see my slides with my notes, you can get the original PowerPoint slides<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

During the presentation, I read aloud from a script we used this past January when we were testing a draft of the library website. Here’s that script:<\/p>\n

Test Script<\/p>\n

First of all, we\u2019d like to thank you for coming. Before we get started, I\u2019m going to start a recording here so that we can document this session. Please don\u2019t worry, as this session will be kept private and you\u2019ll remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

[Test moderator hits CTRL-F8 on the laptop keyboard to start the audio and screen recording]<\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, we\u2019re in the process of redesigning the library web site. In order to make it as easy to use as possible, we\u2019d like to get some input from the people who will be using it. And that\u2019s where you come in. We\u2019re going to ask you to perform a very simple exercise that will give us some great insight into how we can make this web site easier to use.<\/p>\n

I want to make it clear that we\u2019re testing the site, not you. You can\u2019t do anything wrong here. We want to hear exactly what you think, so please don\u2019t worry that you\u2019re going to hurt our feelings. We want to improve it, so we need to know honestly what you think.<\/p>\n

As we go along, I\u2019m going to ask you to think out loud, to tell me what\u2019s going through your mind.<\/p>\n

If you have questions, just ask. I may not be able to answer them right away, since we\u2019re interested in how people do when they don\u2019t have someone sitting next to them, but I will try to answer any questions you still have when we\u2019re done.<\/p>\n

Do you have any questions before we begin?<\/p>\n

[initial questions for the test subject]<\/p>\n

Before we begin the exercise, I\u2019d like to ask you a few quick questions:<\/p>\n

What year are you in school?
\nApproximately how many times have you used the library web site? (sample responses: several times a day, once a day, once a week, once a month, less than once a month)
\nCan you give me a list of 3-4 things you would expect to find or be able to do on the library\u2019s website?
\nWhat type of information or services have you looked for or used on the library web site?
\nIs there any information or services you have had trouble finding on the library site?<\/p>\n

OK, great. We\u2019re done with the questions and we can begin the exercise. Here\u2019s how it works. First, I\u2019m just going to ask you to look at the home page of the test library website and tell me what you think it is, what strikes you about it, and what you think you would click on first.<\/p>\n

And again, as much as possible, it will help us if you can try to think out loud so we know what you\u2019re thinking about.<\/p>\n

[Test moderator opens browser to test page]<\/p>\n

OK. Is there anything that interests you on this page that you might click on?<\/p>\n

Before you click, can you tell me what you expect to find when you click on the link?<\/p>\n

[after clicking] Did you find what you expected?<\/p>\n

[Three main tasks that test subject will complete]<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to ask you to try to complete some tasks using the test library site. Please keep in mind that some of the interior pages of the library site don\u2019t have all the text or links that ultimately will. And as you can see from the library home page, there are some open spaces that we haven\u2019t put content into yet.<\/p>\n

[First task; make sure the browser is back to the home page]<\/p>\n

OK, beginning at the library home page, pretend that you want to know what the hours are for the library next week. Where would you go to find that information?<\/p>\n

[Second task]<\/p>\n

Great. OK, now let\u2019s say that you\u2019ve checked out a book that is due back soon. You\u2019d like to extend the loan period. Can you see a way to use the library site to help with that?<\/p>\n

[Third task]<\/p>\n

Great. Now let\u2019s say that you want to find a textbook titled \u201cBrief Calculus.\u201d Can you see a way to do that?<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for your time. Your help today is going to be fed right back into our redesign efforts.<\/p>\n

[Test moderator presses CTRL F9 on the laptop keyboard to stop the audio and screen recording]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please feel free to reuse this script without attribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The kind folks who run the Carterette Series Webinars for the Georgia Library Association invited me to do a presentation on usability testing basics. I just finished up an hour ago and wanted to share my slides as soon as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[227,226,14,15],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-presentations","tag-usability","tag-usability-testing","tag-user-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenfrancoeur.com\/beatingthebounds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}