Originally presented at QS-Tag 2016 https://www.qs-tag.de/en/abstracts/tag-1/simple-ways-of-planning-designing-and-testing-usability-of-a-software-product/

1. Hier soll der Titel reinTesting properly – Testing what matters
www.qs-tag.de
Organisator: imbus AG www.qs-tag.de
Simple Ways of Planning, Designing
and Testing Usability of a Software
Product
Karolina Zmitrowicz
B!Value

2. • Who am I?
• Who are you?
• What are we going to speak about?
• What are we going to do?
Agenda

3. Usability?
What is it about?
Usability in our world
Usability is the extent to which a
product can be used by certain
users to reach specific objectives
within a specific context of use
with effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction.
ISO
Jakob Nielsen:
• Learnability
• Efficiency
• Memorability
• Errors
• Satisfaction

4. Usability?
What is it about?
Usability in our world

5. If the user can't use it, it doesn't work.
-- Susan Dray
Does it really matter?

11. Waterfall model is not too effective…
…better to use iterative model.
Software development
• Field studies
• Usability test of the
old system
• Competitive studies
Pre-design
phase
• Iterative design
• Prototyping
Design phase
• Collect statistics
and feedback
• Refresh/optimize
• Redesign
Post-design
phase
User involvement – success factor

12. Not only testing!
Plan
Design
Validate
Optimize
How to plan and design usability

14. • Do you know your users?
• Do you know your application?
• Do you know what users think?
• Do you know what users expect?
Plan

15. You don’t?
Learn about them.
Plan

16. Forget IT. Think users.
How they act?
What they want?
What they expect?
Create UX, not just software.
Design

22. Case study

23. • Nina Kravitz
• Age 35.
• Works at XXX Hospital. Not very familiar with IT solutions.
• Already registered in our e-com system.
• Usage pattern: first reaches the Dashboard and then heads to the different areas
from there.
• Wishes: wants to have easy access to her orders and be able to quick order a
new items necessary in her work.
Persona

26. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/285063851385992052/

27. Case study

28. Customer journey
A new item
needed
At work Go to the
website
Search for
the item
See order
conditions
Order an
item
Wait for
information
Item
delivered
Item in use

30. What is your target group?
What groups of users are there?
What usage patterns exist?
What limitiations there are?
Anything else?
Users

31. Plan requires metrics. Estabilish measurable goals to
guide planning, design and test efforts.
Users’ goals
User goal: Browse product offerings and purchase an item.
Poor task: Purchase a detection kit.
Better task: Buy mericon E. coli O157 Detection Kits for under $XX.

32. Plan requires metrics. Estabilish measurable goals to
guide planning, design and test efforts.
Users’ goals
I think we overemphasize metrics
when it comes to usability. They
often introduce problems in terms
of the validity and reliability of the
data.
— Mike Hughes
BUT – be careful!

33. Yes. There are usability requirements.
Requirements
It is possible to reach any given
system function from the main
window in less than 3 clicks.

36. How to create?
http://pencil.evolus.vn/

37. Mobile applications
https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/device-mode/

38. Mockups & Wireframes
wireframes.linowski.ca

39. Case study

41. “Consistency is one of the most powerful
usability principles: when things always
behave the same, users don't have to
worry about what will happen. Instead,
they know what will happen based on
earlier experience.”
Jakob Nielsen

43. Is it possible to execute usability testing in relative
easy and cheap way?
There are many professional methods and tools
They are quite expensive
But there are many tools available for free
Usability testing

44. • Method used to identify usability issues
• How easy it is for new users to accomplish
tasks with the system?
Cognitive walkthrough
Task analysis
Walkthrough
Redesign

45. • Allows to check usability attributes for a system
• Commonly used for websites
• May be based on Nielsen’s heuristics
Evaluation checklist

46. • Visibility of system
• Match between system and the real world
• User control and freedom
• Consistency and standards
• Error prevention
• Recognition rather than recall
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
• Help and documentation
Nielsen’s heuristics
Evaluation checklist

47. Sample application
 Does the system keep users informed about what is going on (through appropriate
feedback within reasonable time)?
 Does the system speak the users’ language?
Evaluation checklist

48. Sample documentation

49. Evaluation checklist

50. Thinking aloud
http://gpl.cs.nctu.edu.tw/Steve-Lin/EEG623/Icon_CHI2016_slides.pdf

51. A/B Testing

52. A/B Testing

53. Lets evaluate something….
http://www.exmouth-view.co.uk/

54. Thank you!
Questions?
Reach me at
zmitrowiczkarolina@gmail.com
k.zmitrowicz@sjsi.org

55. • https://www.usability.gov
• http://www.usabilitybok.org/
• https://www.nngroup.com
• https://uxdesign.cc/
• https://www.uxpin.com
Some reading

57. Thank you!
zmitrowiczkarolina@gmail.com
karolina.zmitrowicz@blstream.com