prototyping and usability testing your designs

58
PROTOTYPING AND USABILITY TESTING Elizabeth Snowdon Business / Web Analyst Consultant specializing in User Centred Design [email protected]

Post on 17-Oct-2014

5.497 views

Category:

Technology


1 download

DESCRIPTION

Learn how to use prototyping and usability testing as a means to validate proposed functionality and designs before you invest in development. SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product and the people who use it. Usability testing is vital to uncovering the areas where these disconnects happen. In this symposium you will learn the steps to conduct a successful usability test. This includes tips and real life examples on how to plan the tests, recruit users, facilitate the sessions, analyze the data, and communicate the results.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

PROTOTYPING AND

USABILITY TESTING

Elizabeth Snowdon

Business / Web Analyst Consultant specializing in User Centred Design

[email protected]

Page 2: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

About me

Senior Business / Web Analyst Consultant

Specialization in User Centred Design

Over 12 years experience in high-technology companies leading software implementations, usability testing and web site design projects

Conducting usability tests since 2003

Clients/projects include:

Sage

PMC-Sierra

Vancity

Royal Bank of Canada

Page 3: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Key takeaways

Benefits of usability testing

When in the software development lifecycle to

apply usability testing

Prototyping to test design concepts

Learn the fundamentals of usability testing

Page 4: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

What is usability?

ISO 9241-11

“the extent to which a product can be used by specified

users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness,

efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.”

Usability Professionals Association

Is an approach that incorporates direct user feedback

throughout the development cycle in order to reduce

costs and create products and tools that meet user

needs

Page 5: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

What is usability?

Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think

“..making sure that something works well: that a person

of average (or even below average) ability and

experience can use the thing --- for it’s intended

purpose without getting hopelessly frustrated”

Page 6: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Commonality of usability definitions

A user is involved

That user is doing something

That user is doing something with a product, system,

or other thing.

Tullis and Albert

Page 7: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

User Centered Design

Focus on users’ needs, tasks, and goals

Invest in initial research and requirements

Identify your target audience and observe them

Let users define product requirements

Iterative design process

Observe real target users using the system

Page 8: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

What

When

Usability testing

Page 9: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

What is usability testing?

is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing

it on representative users.

test users will try to complete typical tasks while

observers watch, listen and takes notes.

Page 10: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Can usability be measured?

Using usability metrics

Most common metrics:

Effectiveness – being able to complete a task

Efficiency – amount of effort required to complete a

task

Satisfaction – degree to which the user is happy with

his/her experience

Page 11: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

5 E’s of usability

Effective: How completely and accurately the work

or experience is completed or goals reached

Efficient: How quickly this work can be completed

Engaging: How pleasant and satisfying it is to use

Error Tolerant: How well the product prevents errors

and can help the user recover from mistakes

Easy to Learn: How well the product supports both

the initial and continued learning

Page 12: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

When to usability test

Usability testing throughout the product lifecycle

- Rubin and Chisnell

Page 13: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Agile / Usability Testing process

Source: The Ladders

Page 14: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Usability test types

Page 15: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Why test?

Testing benefits

Usability testing

Page 16: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Informing design

Identify and rectify usability deficiencies prior to

product release

Intent to create products that:

Are useful to and valued by target audience

Are easy to learn

Help people to be efficient and effective

Are satisfying (delightful) to use

Page 17: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Eliminating design problems and

frustration

Expectation that products are high quality and easy

to use

Demonstrate that goals and priorities of customer

are important

Release a product that customers find useful,

effective, efficient and satisfying

Page 18: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Improving profitability

Creating a historical record of usability benchmarks

for future releases

Minimizing the cost of service and support calls

Increasing sales and the probability of repeat sales

Acquiring a competitive edge

Minimizing the risk

Page 19: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Who

How many

Usability Testing

Page 20: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Follow the principles

“Many usability tests are worthless.

Researchers recruit the wrong kind of

participants, test the wrong kind of

tasks, put too much weight on people's

opinions, and expect participants to

generate design solutions.”

David Travis,

Mar 7, 2011

Page 21: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Test participants

Participant’s background and abilities should be

representative of your product’s intended user

user profile – person with the relevant behaviour,

skills, and knowledge who will use your product.

Page 22: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Visualize the test participant

We want to find out where in the process of creating

an expense report employees meet obstacles to

completing and submitting their reports [the test

objective]. The user of our employee expense

reporting system travels about four times a year,

attends one conference per year and creates about

ten different reports a year. He or she is comfortable

using computers and likes the ability to submit reports

remotely.

Page 23: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

How many users to test?

6-8 users per test or 5 users spread over multiple tests

little ROI in testing more than 9 users

Source:

Jakob Nielsen

Page 24: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Quantitative tests – test 20 users

Experts recommend that you test at least 20 users for quantitative studies.

Source: Jakob Nielsen

Page 25: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Where to test

Usability testing

Page 26: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Testing locations

Lab

Office

bar, café

remote testing

Page 27: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Usability lab

Page 28: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Testing in a conference room

Page 29: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Informal usability testing

Page 30: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Remote testing requirements

Moderator / Note-taker

Screen sharing: WebEx or web conferencing tool

Recording: Morae, Camtasia

Speakerphone

Participant

High speed internet access

Speakerphone or headset telephone

for more info, go to Remote Testing Presentation http://bit.ly/7RYwSO

Page 31: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Prototyping

Page 32: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Benefits of prototyping

Prototyping is generative.

Communicates using show and tell

Reduces misinterpretation

saves time, effort and money

creates a feedback loop, which ultimately reduces

risk

Page 33: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Dimensions of fidelity

Fred Beecher

Page 34: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Appropriate Fidelity

“There is no such thing as high or low fidelity, only

appropriate fidelity.” Bill Buxton

Depends on

where you are in the product development cycle

your goals and your audience

Page 35: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Sketch / Mock-up / Final Prototype

Page 36: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Low Visual and Low Functional Fidelity

can be made swiftly, changed without repercussion,

and still help visualize a concept.

answering large structural questions:

Does the system have all the features required to

support the user’s goals?

Does the workflow make sense at a high level?

Which UX concept works best?

Coming to consensus on a UX concept with stakeholders

Page 37: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Paper prototype example

Page 38: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Low Visual and High Functional Fidelity

interactive, HTML interactive wireframes

Evaluating the usability of proposed designs for new systems

Exploring isolated interactions as a proof-of-concept

Validating UX design direction with stakeholders

Validating the implementation of requirements with stakeholders

Supplementing printed documentation for development teams

Performing remote testing

Page 39: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

High Visual / High Functional Fidelity

Not usually worth the time and effort

Useful for:

Evaluating the usability of proposed UX designs for an

existing system

Performing usability tests with non-savvy user groups

Supplementing printed documentation for offshore

development teams

Page 40: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Prototyping tools

Paper

Visio

PowerPoint

Dreamweaver

Axure

Omnigraffle

Ilustrator

Balsamiq

Page 41: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

How to test?

Test planning

Usability testing

Page 42: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Usability test process

Planning

Test

environment

Recruiting

Test

materials

Test conduct

&

debriefing

Analyze

results

Report &

Presentation

Page 43: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Planning your test

Decide what to test

What are your objectives

What data will you collect

Who is your target audience?

Write a screener

Decide on test location

Remote, lab, conference room, coffee shop

Write tasks that meet your objectives

Page 44: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Deciding what to test

Understand requirements

What do users want to accomplish?

What does the company want to accomplish?

Determine the goals

What tasks does the web site or application support?

Decide on the area of focus

Tasks that have the most impact on your site

Typical tasks

Most critical tasks

Page 45: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Test plan

Purpose, goals, and objectives

Participant characteristics

Method (test design)

Task list

Test environment, equipment and logistics

Test moderator role

Evaluation measures (data to be collected)

Report contents and presentation

Source: Rubin and Chisnell

Page 46: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Recruiting users

Recruit internally or outsource to agency?

Sources of test candidates

Your own company’s list of existing customers

Referrals from sales and marketing

Advertising on Craigslist

Company’s web site or blog

Societies and Associations

Page 47: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Prepare test materials

Orientation script

Background questionnaire

NDA and recording consent

Pre-test questionnaire

Data collection tools

Task scenarios

Post-test questionnaire

Debriefing topics

Page 48: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Task types

First impression questions

What is your impression of this home page or

application?

Exploratory task

Open-ended / research-oriented

e.g. Find a cellular phone plan for yourself

Directed tasks

Specific / answer-oriented

e.g. Find contact information for customer support

Page 49: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Metrics

Task success

Task time

Errors

Efficiency

Number of steps required to perform a task

Self-reported metrics

Likert scale

Do you prefer A or B?

Questionnaires

Page 50: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Prepare the prototype

Freeze code one week prior to test

Run through the scenarios

Dry run prior to test week

Page 51: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Conducting a Test

Page 52: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Test moderator conduct

Put the participants at ease

Give participants time to work through hindrances

Offer appropriate encouragement

Ask non-leading questions

Page 53: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Observe user behavior

Listen to user feedback

Facilitator stays quiet, observes, take notes

Test one user at a time

Mainly qualitative

Page 54: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Debriefing

Exploring and reviewing the participant’s actions

during the test

Goal – understand why every error, difficulty and

omission occurred for every participant for every

session.

Debrief with observers too.

Page 55: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Analyze results

Present

Analyze and present

Page 56: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Contact information

If you have any questions regarding this presentation or usability

testing, please feel free to contact me.

linkedin.com/in/elizabethsnowdon

@elizSnowdon

Email: [email protected]

Web: elizabethsnowdon.ca

Page 57: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

References

Tullis, Albert (2009), Measuring the User Experience .

Rubin, Chisnell (2008), Handbook of Usability Testing.

Usability.gov http://www.usability.gov/

Jakob Nielsen http://www.useit.com/

Usability Professionals Association http://www.upassoc.org/

Jeff Sauro – Quantitative Usability http://www.measuringusability.com/calc.php

STC usability site http://www.stcsig.org/usability/

Warfel, Todd Zaki (2009), Prototyping

Nielsen, Jakob, and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems," Proceedings of ACM INTERCHI'93 Conference (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24-29 April 1993), pp. 206-213.

Page 58: Prototyping and Usability Testing your designs

Q&A

Thank you for listening.