Usability Research Methods

Darlene FichterDarlene.Fichter@usask.ca

March 20, 2009

Overview

1. Cognitive walkthrough

2. Affinity mapping

3. Task based testing

Ethnographic methods

What is Usability?

• Ease of use

• Ease of learning

• Fitness for purpose

effective product

Cognitive walkthrough

• Development team collectively walks through the site assessing whether the visitor has the information to confidently make the next right action

Steps

1. Describe a typical web site visitor

2. (Optional) Pick a task.

3. Ask– Would the visitor see the “choice”?– What would the visitor choose based

solely on the information available on the current page

Exercise

• Typical visitor– 12 year old boy– Just discovered Stephen King books– He’s exhausted his local branch

holdings– In the library and wants to request

books

When to do it?

• Live site – yours and others• Mockup stage

Affinity Mapping

• Insight in how to organize your content from the user’s perspective

Three Main Steps

• List content and services on your site• Have small teams group items and label• Vote for the most important items

Affinity Mapping Exercise

Task Based Testing

• Observe, record, and debrief

5 users will typically uncover 80% of site-level usability problems (Jakob Nielsen)

Design your tasks

• What do you want to know?

• Construct your sample

• Pre-test

1. When are your books are due?2. Find an article about …

Conducting the Study

• Users are given specific tasks

• Asked to talk out loud

• No assistance is provided

Measure and Analyze

• Time

• Errors

• Satisfaction

Exercise

• Task based test

Ethnographic Methods

• Contextual inquiry• Retrospective interviews• Photo journal• A day in the life of …

Studying Students

Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester edited by

Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, 2007

http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-4436

Why do testing with users?

Very big difference between what people say and

what people do