In-class project usability testing
Done in class F 2022-04-08 0pts 100 min
Please ask any questions about this assignment in class. There is nothing to submit for this assignment.
Table of Contents
Change Log
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Aim of the assignment
Today you will evaluate the usability of each other’s project visualizations. Members of other groups will be testing your project, and give you comments and suggestions about it. This should help guide your final project development.
Instructions
Usability testing
For the first 50 min of class you will conduct the study.
Setup
- Each project group should set up a station for people to rotate through somewhere in the classroom.
- Your group’s members will rotate through the following three roles: Interviewer➡Note-taker➡Participant. Decide who will be in each role first. If you only have two members, you’ll just have Interviewer/Note-taker & Participant. If you have four members, you’ll have two Participants.
- Review the instructions for how to run the study and what to do afterwards.
- When instructed to do so, begin the first study session. When instructed to move on to the next study session, the Interviewer becomes the Note-taker, the Note-taker becomes a Participant, and a Participant returns to their project group’s station to become the Interviewer. Do not participate in the same study twice.
- You will run ~9 participants through your study, each spending 5 minutes with you.
For each participant you run
The interviewer should
- Introduce yourself to the study participant.
- Make sure participant is situated and knows how to use trackpad/mouse at designated laptop.
- Ask the participant if they have seen any previous drafts/versions of your project, and if “yes” at what stage of development.
- Ask the participant if they have any past experience with or knowledge of your project topic past what they have seen in class.
- Instruct the participant to browse your final project visualization!
- Instruct the participant that they are allowed to ask questions as they browse.
- Do not give your participant a walk-through of the visualization, let them explore and ask you questions if they get stuck.
- After the participant appears to have gone through the webpage and visualization, ask the participant what they learned or gathered from your visualization.
- Ask the participant if they have any additional comments or questions.
- If you have specific questions or features you want feedback on, ask now.
- Thank your participant!
The note-taker should
- Introduce yourselves to the study participant.
- Take notes! Pay particular attention to:
- what the users interact with the visualization
- what are they able to accomplish quickly
- where are they confused
- whether they interact in unexpected ways
- whether any technical bugs are revealed
The participant should
- Be flexible, courteous, and remember to practice constructive criticism.
- Follow a think-aloud protocol, constantly speaking their intents, discoveries, and any problems they have.
At the end of the study, work with your group in your Zoom Room to review the comments and questions you received. These can be from the Teams Channel or in the Canvas Discussion. Look for common trends, “hacks,” points of confusion, what works well, bugs… All of this feedback should guide your continued development and preparation for presentations.
Synthesis & project work
For the last 50 min of class:
- Summarize & synthesize the feedback you received. Look for common trends, “hacks”, points of confusion, what works well, bugs… All of this feedback should guide your continued development and preparation for presentations.
- Using that feedback, create a to-do list of the bugs you need to fix, features/functionality you need to add to the visualization, changes to the model you need to make, etc.
- Based on your to-do lists of tasks and bugs, continue programming and editing together to make sure your project works and is usable.
Submission instructions
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Grading rubric
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