A video report showing a paper prototype usability test: Paper Prototype usability test by Corel Corporation

Filed by Nancy Van House at 9:11 am under Prototyping,Usability Testing
Comments Off on Paper Prototype Usability Testing

Readings

Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte, Remote Research: real users, real time, real research. Rosenfeld, 2010. This book also covers many issues relevant to any kind of testing.  Table of contents covers a lot of useful info.  This book is worth buying. Note you can buy in more than one format.  (You can get a discount using the code “venturebeat”.)

Bolt | Peters specializes in remote testing, and is unusual in how open they are about their methods, products, and costs.

• boltpeters.com/services/live-remote-research/ — this is an overview of their methods. Be sure you look at the video!
• Look at this vimeo video about Ethnio, too — about this method, on-line real-time user recruiting.
• Many more Bolt |Peters videos of user tests on Vimeo

Look at http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/remote-research/info/table_of_contents/ —

www.boxesandarrows.com/view/researching-video

entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2010/02/11/bolt-peters-remote-research/

Resources

Web conferencing and screen sharing tools such as GoToMeeting (See how to use GoToMeeting on a Mac)

Micro testing, with heat maps Usabilla.com

UserZoom

About various tools:  How to Shop for Unmoderated Usability Testing Tools Bill Albert

Examples

Several videos of a remote user tests of Wikipedia  from Bolt | Peters (“Cool” is not necessarily the best response ALL the time.)

Filed by Nancy Van House at 1:03 pm under Methods,Remote Usability Testing,Usability Testing
Comments Off on No

Filed by Nancy Van House at 3:14 pm under Media,Usability Testing,Video
Comments Off on Sample Videos

See also Remote Usability Testing; Mobile Usability Testing

Readings

updated 9/20

Kuniavsky, ch. 10

Rubin, Jeffrey, Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests. Wiley, 1994

(This book is worth buying — a classic — get the new edition, 2008.)

• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 5

New edition has sample forms online — note in particular:

Chapter 05: Test Plans and Designs A sample test plan including sections for overall objectives, research questions, location and setup, recruiting participants, and methodology.	17.41 KB	HTTP | FTP
Chapter 08: Session Forms Pre-Test Forms: Background Questionnaire	9.69 KB	HTTP | FTP
Chapter 08: Session Forms Post-Test Forms: Closing Likert Ratings	61.39 KB	HTTP | FTP
Chapter 08: Session Forms Post-Test Forms: Closing Semantics Deferentials	8.07 KB	HTTP | FTP
Chapter 08: Session Forms Session Script: Example A Session Script	12.78 KB	HTTP | FTP
Chapter 08: Session Forms Pre-Test Forms: Guidelines for Observers	7.56 KB	HTTP | FTP

Joseph S. Dumas and Beth A. Loring, Moderating Usability Tests: Principles and Practices for Interacting, Elsevier, 2008. The table of contents for this book has an excellent set of rules for interacting with participants in tests, which apply pretty well to interviews, too.  The table of contents has other good advice, too.  Available as an e-book and as a Kindle book.

Nielsen/Norman group User Testing workshop: list of topics tells a lot about what you need to know.

Optional from Rubin— but highly recommended:

• • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 8
  • Chapter 10

From Usability.gov: Good templates for a variety of documents for usability testing: test plan, tester scripts, consent forms, note-taker’s guide.  As part of a page of usability templates of all kinds.

Reporting

Kuniavsky, ch. 17

Templates from usability.gov — scroll down to Reports.

Common Industry Format — is supposed to be a standard but no one uses it.

Tools

Morae: Not cheap but widely used

Ethnio

Report comparing available tools: Robin Good, Website Usability Testing: Guide To The Best Professional Usability Testing Tools And Services.  I don’t know how good this assessment is — I’m suspicious looks OK — may be most valuable for the list of tools for which you should seek other reviews. None are cheap, but some may have free trials.

Usabilla: micro usability tests

A list and description of usability testing tools: 24 Usability Testing Tools from W Craig Tomlin — don’t know the author but this list is useful.

Examples

Really good example — Wikipedia study by Bolt | Peters.  They use the Wikipedia format for report to/about Wikipedia. Includes links to highlight videos.

Filed by Nancy Van House at 11:30 am under Methods,Readings,Usability Testing
Comments Off on Usability Testing