Posted: April 20th, 2022

IT 337 Project Three Usability Testing

IT 337 Project Three Usability Testing
Usability Testing—Pilot Study
In this study, you will be testing the usability of the usability test. Your objective is to determine whether the directions you are providing to the user are understandable, whether you are able to collect the necessary data to determine if the user can complete the tasks, how long the test actually takes, whether the hints supplied by either the system or by you enable the user to complete the task, and whether you are able to record this information adequately.

Suggestions
Since you have already done a heuristic review of one of the three websites, you should select the site you used and start filling out the tasks and data you want to collect from your user.

For this project, you are interested in the usability of the website. Therefore, you will be asking participants to use the electronic device of their choice to access the website. This will ensure that your users are not confused by the use of an unfamiliar computer, tablet, or phone. As these websites would typically be accessed by the user in a natural setting, such as at home, in the school library, or in the cafeteria, select a place in which your user feels comfortable. For conducting the test, be sure that you can find a reasonably quiet place where you will not be disturbed during the evaluation.

Use the following User Test Plan template for this test. While you should certainly be interested in problems the pilot user has, you should be most interested in whether the user test plan needs to be revised prior to running additional users through it. To achieve this, develop the materials described in the User Test Plan Template and run through them with your pilot user, then comment on any changes that you need to make to the test plan.

User Test Plan Template

Participant Information
Complete this template section of the user test plan by replacing the bracketed text with the relevant information.
Date: [Insert text]
Participant #: Pilot
Participant information:
Name: [Insert text]
Gender: [Insert text]
Age: [Insert text]
Occupation: [Insert text]
Participant’s technology expertise level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced): [Insert text]
Type of device being used: [Insert text]
Website being used: [Insert text]
Description of where evaluation is being conducted: [Insert text]

Directions to Read to Participant: (Note: You can modify these as you see fit, but read the same content to all participants. This will ensure that all participants are treated exactly the same.)
You have been invited here today to help us understand whether users have problems using this website to compare different computers to see what they might want to purchase in the future. Any problems that you encounter during the tasks are not your fault, but rather issues with the website that we are interested in fixing in the near future. If you need help with any task, you can use help provided on the site, or you are welcome to ask me and I can provide you with some hints as necessary. Any questions? The total time to complete this evaluation will be approximately [Insert text].
Some items to have on hand: a timer or digital watch to time tasks, paper and pencils for the participant, a notepad for you to take notes on.

Develop List of Tasks the User Will Need to Complete
You will need to share this list with the user during testing. After each task, provide several brief questions for the users. They can be rating questions or open-ended. They will be used to gather information on how the user viewed completing the task.

Example: Complete this template section of the user test plan by replacing the bracketed text with the relevant information.
Task Rating scales Comments
1. Look for one computer you are interested in purchasing [Use a numerical rating scale from 1 to 7, with 1 being very unsatisfactory and 7 being very satisfactory]

[Use a numerical rating scale from 1 to 7, with 1 being difficult to use and 7 being easy to use] [Insert text]
2. [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
3. [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]

User Satisfaction Questionnaire
Create a user satisfaction questionnaire (using QUIS as a guide) for your participant to fill out after completing the usability test. This questionnaire should include an overall scale, rating different aspects of the usability of the website.

Tracking User Performance
Below is an example of a table that you could use to keep track of what your user is doing and any problems they may have with these tasks. Reference the Develop a user test plan and Conduct a user test using the user test plan you developed sections of the Project Three guidelines to ensure that you have addressed all of the required information.
Complete this template section of the user test plan by replacing the bracketed text with the relevant information.
TASK Time started Time ended Any help needed (describe) Successfully completed? Comments by participant Comments by the observer
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]
[Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text] [Insert text]

For each task the participants are asked to perform, you should devise several prompts to help them, for example: “Feel free to press any help icon you see if you are unable to proceed any further.” Then note which ones are used by the participant, as well as any comments you might make. Try to avoid telling the participants what to do. Instead consider asking a question, such as: “What would you do if you were alone at home and trying to perform this task?”

Homework help – Summary
The primary objective here is to determine whether you need to change anything in the testing procedure or documents. Consider the following:

● Was the participant able to follow the instructions and understand the ratings?
● Did the test take a reasonable amount of time, or does it need to be shorter?
● Were the prompts you developed helpful, or do they need to be changed?
● Were you able to keep track of the time for the tasks?
● Were you able to take enough notes, or should you record the audio for the other tests?

Evaluate the results from this pilot test to inform possible changes to the user test plan. Ace my homework – Write a brief report summarizing the results. In your summary, you must explain:

○ What worked well
○ What didn’t work
○ What you would change before presenting the user test plan to additional users

References

Usability.gov. (2020). Usability.gov: Improving the user experience. Retrieved from usability.gov.

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Project 3 IT 337 Usability Testing
Pilot Study for Usability Testing

You will be testing the usability of the usability test in this study. Your goal is to determine whether the instructions you provide to the user are understandable, whether you can collect the necessary data to determine if the user can complete the tasks, how long the test actually takes, whether the hints provided by the system or by you enable the user to complete the task, and whether you can adequately record this information.

Suggestions

Because you have already completed a heuristic review of one of the three websites, you should select the site you used and begin filling out the tasks and data you wish to collect.

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