ISE 412 - HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING

Lab #1

Usability Testing

Purpose:

  1. Experience the process of conducting and analyzing a usability study.
  2. Practice the art of observing human behavior and making design recommendations based on the spoken and unspoken reactions of participants to a design.

Assignment:

Part 1: Study script review and practice(due Monday, September 21, 2009)

  1. In your group, identify who will be the testmoderator, who will be the recorder, and who will be the observer. Note that
  2. the moderator will be in the testing room with the participant and will guide the participant through the study, ask questions, and keep the test on track,
  3. the recorder will be responsible for operating the Morae software in the observation room and logging important markers (start of new task, notation of significant events, etc.) as the test progresses, and
  4. the observer will be monitoring the test closely from the observation room and making handwritten notes that will be used to supplement the final analysis.
  5. As a group, review the attached script for a usability study of the MERC Program Manager Tools and Resources website. Note any questions, rewrite where appropriate to keep the interaction with the participant as natural as possible, and ensure that everyone in the group understands the script. Any questions should be brought to class for discussion on Monday.
  6. As a group and individually, visit the tutorials available on the TechSmith Morae® website ( Bring any questions you have to class on Monday.
  7. If you have time, conduct a test run of the script using Morae. Make any necessary changes and bring any questions to class on Monday.

Part 2: Usability test (due Friday, October 2, 2009)

Once you are comfortable with the script and the software, you will conduct the usability test with 3 participants. At least one participant should be a MERC project manager (I will arrange for these volunteers and facilitate scheduling of the tests involving them). The remainder of your participants should be volunteers who you feel will give you useful feedback on the website under consideration. I will post a schedule for the lab outside my office door - sessions will be scheduled in 2-hour blocks to ensure that there is sufficient time for setup, testing, debrief, and clean-up.

Report: Your report should include the following.

  1. Introduction: The purpose of the test, a brief description of the website being tested, and any other introductory material you wish to include.
  2. Procedure: A detailed description of the procedure you used to conduct the usability test. The script itself should be included in the appendix, and your procedure section should include the roles played by each group member, how you recruited your non-MERC participants, the approximate (or average) length of the sessions, and any changes you made to the tasks or script.
  3. Results: A brief description of the relevant characteristics of your participants (male/female, age, experience with project management, computer experience, etc.), followed by the results of your test in roughly the following order:
  4. Major findings – comments, suggestions, questions, and difficulties from 2 or more participants, i.e., “all of the participants tried to do x when asked to do y”, “two of the three participants asked if button a was the right one to choose”, etc.
  5. Insights from 1 or more participants – comments that may not have been expressed by more than 1 of the participants, but that resonate with you as worth noting.
  6. Your observations – any other pertinent observations by a member of the group that was not already mentioned and that you feel should be considered.
  7. Conclusions/Recommendations: General conclusions about the usability of the web site as designed. Include specific recommendations for changes or additional information, as well as features that should be retained, that should be included as the design process continues.