Lab #5: Usability Testing

What You Need to Complete this Lab

1. Access to the Internet
2. Knowledge of the readings assigned for today:
• Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think (ch. 1-11)

Lab Overview
For this lab, you will practice the basic process of usability testing. As Steve Krug explains, the basic idea of usability testing is simple:

If you want to know whether your software or your Web site or your VCR remote control is easy enough to use, watch some people while they try to use it and note where they run into trouble. Then fix it, and test it again. (p. 143)

User testing should be conducted early and often in the development of a Web site. You don't have to test scores of users, just 3-5 at a time. The testing begins with understanding the audience and purpose of the site. Tests are designed to assess how well average users can perform the main functions/purposes of a Web site. To test an airline's Web site, ask users if they can easily make online travel reservations. If the site also aims to provide destination information, check to see if users can find worthwhile information about cities, hotels, and car rentals. And what if users get stuck? Check to see if they can find information about user assistance, site policies, and contacting the company.

Testing is simple too, as Krug explains. You need enough money to pay the people you test a modest stipend and you may want to record the actual tests on video (Krug, p. 144). After you set up your user test (Krug, pp. 151-153), you simply want to sit back and watch how the people react to the simulated tasks you ask them to perform—without any help from you. Before they begin, you'll want to ask them some basic background information (age, gender, Internet experience and habits) to see how closely your test subjects match the profile of intended users of the site. During the tests, you'll want to take notes about what users click on, what they say out-loud, and how long it takes them to perform the tasks.

Once the tests are complete, compile the results, analyze the data for trends that reveal what's not working (and what's working), and determine what changes to make based on the test results. Then fix it, and test again (see Krug, pp. 172-180).

Lab Activity
To get experience conducting user tests, for this tutorial you'll be grouped into teams of "usability consultants." Each team will be assigned a Web site to evaluate with pre-arranged tests (provided with this lab), using classmates from other groups as the user test subjects.

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