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Who
Else Should Observe a Usability Test?
Lots
of people. Try to arrange space for observers.
- The team responsible
for the Web site should come and watch and listen.
- Content owners
(subject matter specialists) who are developing material for the Web
site should come and watch and listen.
- Managers and
executives who may be skeptical about usability engineering or skeptical
about your analysis of users' knowledge and skills should come and
watch and listen.
Usability testing
is often the first or only time that many designers, developers, writers,
and managers see actual users working with their site. Usability testing
is a dose of reality that many need to see.
How can you accommodate
observers?
In a typical usability test, you do not want to have more than one or
two other people in the same room with the participant. So, you need
to find other space.
- In the user's
home or work space, observers will be difficult to accommodate.
- Usability labs
usually have a separate room where observers watch the usability test
through one-way glass or on a large monitor.
- If you are testing
in a conference room, you may be able to set up a room for observers
nearby. You can bring the video and sound that is being tape recorded
to a large monitor in the observers' room. You can run a cable up
to about 50 feet from the recording equipment to the observers' monitor
without degrading the picture or sound.
How should you
work with observers?
Ask observers to help by taking notes. Give them index cards or pads
of sticky notes — and give them some instructions on how to take
good notes. That can help them focus on observing and listening carefully.
If the observers
are new to usability testing, arrange to have one of the trained test
team members sit with the observers. The test team member can take notes
from the observers' room as well as monitoring the conversation among
observers. Observers sometimes jump to conclusions about users or the
Web site after only a few minutes of watching and listening. You may
need to remind them that other sessions may show different results.
Collect the notes
from the observers and consider them in analyzing the usability test.
If any observers
are not part of the team that will be looking at the data and continuing
to work on the site, follow up with them after the testing day. Find
out what they took from the experience, and use the opportunity to get
them excited about and involved in usability in the future.
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•
Moving Forms to the Web - Thursday-Friday, October 14-15, 2004
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Goal Oriented Planning and Testing October 21, 2004
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New Research-Based Guidelines Sorting Tool: Sort Guidelines by Importance, Strength of Evidence, and Other Options
• What's New Archive |
