Activity 02 - Towards the design of a quick usability study

During todays activity, we’re going to use particular interfaces to think through how we might conduct a usability study for that interface. We will be referencing Chapter 13 as we think through this, but, if you want to go deeper for the future, you can take the suggestion provided in FDUCS and take a look at some chapters in the book “Research Methods in Human Computer Interaction”, which you should be able to get for free as a student!

As with the previous activity, this is meant to a low-stakes (in-class) activity that gets you thinking about possibilities for further work (e.g., for your final project!)

  • This is (good faith) attempt based in that as long as you submit an answer that makes sense, you get full credit.

Note that there are questions below under steps - you should make sure you’re recording answers as you progress!

Per table assignment

To simplify things, each table will begin to develop a usability study for a particular interface/scenario. We will use various PSU sites as our base for this work. Table-based assignments will be presented in class.

Each table-based group will be submitting a (pdf) document to Canvas that has the following:

  • Your groups (table) number
  • All members of your in-class group
  • Numbered responses to each of the tasks below

I would suggest a shared doc (e.g., google or msword) is used during class.

1 - Exploring your interface and thinking of tasks (10 mins)

Navigate to the website that you’ve been assigned and brainstorm tasks you might use to do user-based testing the site.

  • Give at least 5 tasks you would have a user complete (2 pts)

    • There are many possible tasks here! For example, you could have a user chang/enter particular information (e.g., paying a tuition bill) or simply seeking information (e.g., finding a professor’s contact information via a department website.)

2 - The users (8 mins)

Now lets explore users for your tasks.

  • Give some information on your users (2 pts):
    • Are they students? Do they fall within a particular age range?
    • What are the potential stress cases in terms of users for your site and how will your study ensure testing for those cases?
    • How many users will you have complete your evaluation and why that number?

3 - Collection of data (8 mins)

Now that we have thought about tasks and users, lets think through the data you might collect.

  • Tell us about the data collection method(s) you will use and why (2 pts):
    • Will the data you collect be mainly quantitative, qualitative, or will it be some of both?
    • Which method(s) (from chapter 13) will you employ?
    • Why did you make this selection of methods? What specifically did you consider in making this selection?

What to submit?

(Copied from above) Each table-based group will be submitting a (pdf) document to Canvas that has the following:

  • Your groups (table) number
  • All members of your in-class group
  • Numbered responses to each of the tasks (above)

Grading

Graded itemPoints
Answer to task 12 pts
Answer to task 22 pts
Answer to task 32 pts

Total points possible: 6 pts