11. Types of Usability Tests
(Based on research goals)
Problem discovery
Benchmark
Competitive
Eye-tracking
Learnability
12. “The right method depends on your
research goals and many studies
involve a combination of the
usability types...”
Jeff Sauro.
Notas do Editor
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:36) -----
Usability is comprised of learnability, memorability, efficiency, satisfaction and errors. Learnability is how easy it is for a new user to accomplish tasks the first time they visit your website. Memorability is how easy it is for someone to come back to using your website after they haven’t used it for a period of time. Efficiency is how quickly users can complete tasks on your site after they are familiar with its use. Satisfaction is whether users enjoy the design of your site and errors refers to the number of errors users make when they use your site, the severity of the errors and how easy they are to recover from.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:39) -----
Usability Testing is a technique used to evaluate a product (in this case a website) by testing is on users. Most people who set up a usability test carefully construct a scenario wherein a person performs a list of tasks that someone who is using the website for the first time is likely to perform. Someone else observes and listens to the person who is performing the tasks while taking notes. Watching someone perform common tasks on a website is a great way to test whether the site is usable because you will immediately be able to see whether they are able to perform the tasks and any difficulties they have while doing so.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:40) -----
The main reason that usability is so important is because there are so many similar websites that people will go to the next site if the first one they visit is not usable. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but people will leave immediately if they are unable to figure out how to navigate your site quickly.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:41) -----
Indeed, high-quality websites that are easy to use bring in customers and give a particular site a competitive edge over the competition.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 01:22) -----
What do phone users spend most of their time on? Interacting with mobile applications (or apps as most of us refer to them). Yes, you read that correctly. A recent study shows that phone users in the US spend 86% of their mobile usage time solely on apps. Another study actually calculated this figure to be as high as 89%. And taking this further, it has also been found that mobile users spend 80% of their mobile app usage time using just five apps (out of the total of 24 apps they typically use in a month).
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 01:27) -----
Lack of screen size and processors limited the development of apps.
Research shows that usability is key for the success of mobile apps. In fact, a common trend among successful mobile phone applications is that they are perceive by users as being easy to learn, user-friendly and less time-consuming when completing tasks. Other researchers have actually identified a direct link between mobile application usability and user acceptance.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:46) -----
Explorative: Used early in product development to assess the effectiveness and usability of a preliminary design or prototype, as well as users’ thought processes and conceptual understanding.
Assessment: Used midway in product development or as an overall usability test for technology evaluation. Evaluates real-time trials of the technology to determine the satisfaction, effectiveness, and overall usability.
Comparative: Compares two or more instructional technology products or designs and distinguishes the strengths and weaknesses of each.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:52) -----
Moderated in-person: A facilitator is co-located with the participant (often in a lab).
Moderated remote: The participant and facilitator are in different locations. Screen sharing software (like GoTo meeting or WebEx) allows the facilitator to remotely watch the participant attempt tasks with software or a website and allows for probing on problems.
Unmoderated remote: Software from UserZoom or Loop11 administers tasks automatically to participants around the world. You can collect a lot of data quickly and for a fraction of the cost of in-person testing. In many cases you have a recording of the participant's screen and webcam, but there's no way to simultaneously interact with all participants.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:52) -----
Moderated in-person: A facilitator is co-located with the participant (often in a lab).
Moderated remote: The participant and facilitator are in different locations. Screen sharing software (like GoTo meeting or WebEx) allows the facilitator to remotely watch the participant attempt tasks with software or a website and allows for probing on problems.
Unmoderated remote: Software from UserZoom or Loop11 administers tasks automatically to participants around the world. You can collect a lot of data quickly and for a fraction of the cost of in-person testing. In many cases you have a recording of the participant's screen and webcam, but there's no way to simultaneously interact with all participants.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:52) -----
Moderated in-person: A facilitator is co-located with the participant (often in a lab).
Moderated remote: The participant and facilitator are in different locations. Screen sharing software (like GoTo meeting or WebEx) allows the facilitator to remotely watch the participant attempt tasks with software or a website and allows for probing on problems.
Unmoderated remote: Software from UserZoom or Loop11 administers tasks automatically to participants around the world. You can collect a lot of data quickly and for a fraction of the cost of in-person testing. In many cases you have a recording of the participant's screen and webcam, but there's no way to simultaneously interact with all participants.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:52) -----
Moderated in-person: A facilitator is co-located with the participant (often in a lab).
Moderated remote: The participant and facilitator are in different locations. Screen sharing software (like GoTo meeting or WebEx) allows the facilitator to remotely watch the participant attempt tasks with software or a website and allows for probing on problems.
Unmoderated remote: Software from UserZoom or Loop11 administers tasks automatically to participants around the world. You can collect a lot of data quickly and for a fraction of the cost of in-person testing. In many cases you have a recording of the participant's screen and webcam, but there's no way to simultaneously interact with all participants.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:54) -----
PROBLEM DISCOVERY:
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:54) -----
The goal is to uncover (and fix) as many usability problems as possible.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:55) -----
Problem discovery studies are usually conducted using a moderated approach, where a facilitator can really dig into the actions and utterances of the participant to uncover problems. You can still conduct a formative study using the unmoderated remote method if you have participants think aloud and have their screens and webcams recorded.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 00:59) -----
BENCHMARK:
Problems were found and new designs were created. But did those design changes actually make the interface easier to use? The goal of a benchmark study is to answer the question: How usable is the interface? Measuring the usability of an interface before design changes are made allows you to set a benchmark to compare future designs against.
METHOD: Unmoderated remote.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 01:04) -----
Competitive:Collecting benchmark data tells you how usable your website is and how users are performing on key tasks. A stand-alone benchmark generates a lot of data, but without a comparison to an earlier benchmark you're often left wondering "are these results good or bad?" To provide a meaningful comparison, have another set of participants attempt the same set of tasks on competing websites or products.
METHOD: Unmoderated remote. es ma barato se puede cubrir usuarios de todos lados al mismo tiempo.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 01:06) -----
Eye-tracking studies are also time-intensive. In addition to the usual recruitment and facilitator time, you should plan 10 minutes of analysis time for every 1 minute of eye-tracking data collected with participants. You can conduct eye-tracking on just about any device, although we mostly limit it to desktop and tablet websites and apps.
----- Meeting Notes (05/10/16 01:10) -----
LERNABILITY:
Most usability studies assess first time use. Even when using participants who have experience with an interface, the task details are almost always unfamiliar in some way. Consequently, the findings often describe initial use, rather than usage over time.