09
Nov
09

Bookmarks 11/9/2009

Five Techniques for Getting Buy-In for Usability Testing

Mark Baskinger on Drawing Ideas and Communicating Interaction on Vimeo

adaptive path » task-based audience segmentation

“Trigger words are content-related and navigational–words that help lead you along the path to what you seek. Care words are task-related not content-related; they are the words that visitors need to see to complete the task they are on your site for. These words are not always found in your search logs or in keywords that have led people from Google to your site. But, through polling, testing and observation, care words can be discovered.” Jarod Spool summarizing Gerry McGovern’s talk on Managing Sites for Top Tasks.

06
Nov
09

Bookmarks 11/6/2009

Following in the footsteps of Nicole Engard, social networking guru, I am going to start posting my bookmarks for the day, along with a favorite quote. I hope these are of interest!

People Search Once, Maybe Twice

Users Don’t Learn To Search  Better

Why Amazon Succeeds — And Why It Won’t Help You

Digital Collections Blog » Website Redesign

Library Services | Rowan University

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 [pdf]

Dan Rubin: “When you design something right, no one will pat you on the back, because now it works like it’s supposed to.”

05
Nov
09

apache mod rewrite

I have dabbled in the past with Apache rewrite rules but never in a really extensive manner. For the past day, I’ve been trying to get our Dspace application (which is currently now running under https://) to run under http:// with only the login under https://. Easy, huh? Well, thanks to the Dspace list, I did get some good syntax for mod rewrite rules.

ssl.conf

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(ldap-login|image|.*css|.*js)
RewriteRule   ^/(.*) http://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [L,R]

httpd.conf

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond   %{REQUEST_URI} ^/ldap-login.*
RewriteRule   ^/(.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R,L]

What does this do? It looks for any url on the site that doesn’t match /ldap-login and forwards those requests to http://. If the request matches /ldap-login, then Apache forwards to https://. All of this was pretty easy to get up and running. I started testing however, and in IE I was receiving a warning that part of the page was not secure.  Hmmm. After scratching my head for a bit, I opened up Firebug and discovered the images, css and js were being rerouted back to http://.  After reacquainting myself with regex (yes, I don’t do this stuff on a daily basis), I came up with this condition: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(ldap-login|image|.*css|.*js) which remedies the  non secure/secure error. Pretty cool, huh?

I’m now feeling more confident that this is going to work in production (it’s in test now) despite the fact that I continually scratch my head as I look at the mod_jk connector code that’s also in my Apache config on the Dspace server…How in the world did I get this up and running last year!

03
Nov
09

Someone, Someplace, Something

These 3 items are all you need for usability testing according to Dana Chisnell, Usability Testing guru. Dana writes in a recent article in A List Apart, that to get started all you need is:

someone who is a user of your design (or who acts like a user), something to test (a design in any state of completion), and someplace where the user and the design can meet and you can observe. Someplace can even be remote, depending on the state of the design. You can do all that fancy lab stuff, but you don’t have to

I love this philosophy of usability testing and am adopting it in the latest iteration of our Web site redesign. Next week we’ll head down to Starbucks in the library lobby with a laptop and 5 questions. We’ll ask our users to give us 5 minutes of their time. No formal usability lab, just 5 minutes with a coffee and a student. As Dana suggests, I’ve prepared a short script for us (part of the test plan) as well as 5 tasks for our users. Conducting tests in this manner will help us tweak the design we have and will give us some good data about the ways in which our users will use the new design. Hopefully, we’ll end up with something that is user-friendly for all of our constituents.

21
Sep
09

Usability Testing without the Scary: Part II

creating tasks:

task descriptions

task

state

successful completion criteria

forming task scenarios
> open -ended

>not system-oriented

> separate the results from the process

eg. you want particants to find fin. aid options

participants want to pay for college

elements of task scenario – can get from use cases, although these are typically system oriented

scenario based tasks:

> representation of real work

> expansion of conventional task sdecription

> includes context, rationale, movtivation

> from user’s point of view

> avoid jargon and cues

> may roll up multiple tasks into a high-level goal

look at keywords in the task when determining the structure of it

interview based tasks -

good for sussing out keywords for information architecture

great to do early on in design when there’s a lot of flexibility

avoids pretending and playing roles that don’t fit experience

supports motivation

not pre-defined

participants’ wording is revealing

can reveal tasks

good for scavenger hunt tasks; great for research

not great for transactional types of tasks

can reveal process and usage patterns

***

moderator characteristics:

quick learner

develops rapport, empathetic

excellent memory

good listener

***

planning & protocol

protocol = script, checklist

focuses the session

train observers on this

***

moderating, not training during the session

it’s your role to learn from them

***

recording sessions? if you need transcripts; nice to be able to go back and check the data

there can be cons;

***

getting started:

don’t tell participants how many tasks there are

give tasks on pieces of paper

read each task

have each participant read the task

***

debriefing questions:

what are 2 things you saw today you really liked?

what are 2 things you didn’t like so much?

pay attention to how long it takes them to come up with these 2 questions

end on time; respect their time; observers to thank the participant as well

escort the participant out of the building

***

taking notes

try to answer research questinos

try to tie to issues to explore

try to make it easy as possible to collect data

***

big ideas

task scenarios:

> answer research questions

> must be realistic

> from user’s point of view

anyone can moderate sessions

observe, don’t teach

support participants

get someone else to take notes, if you can

**

debriefing and coming to a consensus

3 techniques

> rolling issues list

consensus on observations in real time

observer participation = buy in

low-fi reporting

complete a session and then note issues – add to the list as the sessions progress

observations on the fly – flip chart, whiteboard, wiki, clear enough to remember what was meant

invite observers to add and track items

weighting – number of incidents; who’s who

> observation – inference – opinion – direction

observations to direction – quantifying subjective data in 4 easy steps

advice

troubleshooting

discretion

tech savvy

inference = draw judgement from the observation

take the inferences (guesses at this point) -> opinions are formed

how likely is this inference to be the cause?

how often did the observation happen?

opinions -> lead to design direction; not recommendations, but a decision by the team of observers

test theories after design changes

> kj analysis

reach consensus from subjective data

similar to affinity diagramming

not unlike card sorting

8 steps

> focus question

> organize the group – people in the room are those who observed sessions; typically takes an hour

> put opinions or data on sticky notes – write 1 observation from usability test; no discussion; no talking

> put sticky notes on the wall; no discussion

> group simliar items; everyone does this; move all the stickies among groups; every item has to be in a group; no discussion

> name each group; names must be noun clusters; split groups; join them; everyone must give the group a name; no disucssion

> vote for the most important groups; each person writes their top 3; share opinions, set priorities

> rank the groups; pull notes with votes; order by number of notes; discuss combining groups; stop at 3-5 clear priorities

go to UIE.com and look at Spool’s article on KJ analysis

take aways:

develop a test plan

find participants

conduct sessions

debrief and come to consensus

21
Sep
09

Usability Testing without the Scary: Part I

At EdUI conference watching Dana Chisnell’s workshop.

3 things we want to get out of the day

1 – remote user testing

2 – what makes a successful test

3 – quick & dirty testing

3 things that are scary about user testing

1 – am I reporting the results correctly?

2 – do I have enough participants?

3 – is quick & dirty testing valid?

Today’s agenda:

1 – quick testing – putting sites together quickly in an educational setting; want to be able to feel confident in decisions;

2 – valid testing

3 – concerned about how user testing fits into the process

4 – get continuous feedback from users; constant feedback

4 essential steps:

art and craft involved; there is a rigorous process, but it doesn’t have to be scientifically rigorous.

talk about classic methodology for user testing

classic can take a long time to conduct testing; few teams have the luxury of doing this; lots of pressure to get everything exactly right

you can do classic usability testing; however, you don’t have to do that; you can conduct really good user testing that are super informative without the longer, more classic testing. go to where the users are

4 steps today
1 – planning

2 – recruitment

3 – doing the sessions

4 – communicating with team on results- debrief with observers and decide together

what you need

  • someone to test
  • somewhere to test
  • something to study

get alot out of field studies – going to where the users are

“sit next to someone and watch them do something”

***

demonstration

“son is looking for an agricultural engineering degree. the parent is looking for the dates for getting your application in. and what the fees are”

start at google

search was “university of pennsylvania application deadline”

next search (after not finding the information) “application deadline for university of pennsylvania”

questions asked by dana: 1- what do you think the site is about? 2 – what do expect to find 3 – what’s the definition of early decision? what would you do now that the information is not available? what’s your assumption about fees and whether there is one? what was the best thing about this site? what one thing should be improved?

app fees and application deadlines not together on the site

jargon – inside information – who we are as an institution; very little interest in who the user is and who might come there

interview based tasks instead of scenario based tasks

lots of biases that result from user testing; not a psych experiment; this is learning what the design problems are in an interface

how well does the interface support the goal?

***

why test?

why are designs hard to use?

> teams focus on technology

> audiences change and adapt

> creating a usable design is difficult

> team specialists don’t often coordinate

> design and implementation don’t match

supporting great design

> some testing is better than no testing at all; even 1 person is better than not asking anyone

> ideally input from users at each phase and you’re working on a team that works together

> need support from leadership; if management doesn’t support it, you’ll never fit it

> willingness to learn as you go; have to be flexible about unexpected things

> defined usability goals and objectives

***

where’s the value in testing?

70% watching someone use the design

start getting feedback as soon as possible

focus on:

> what can make the most difference to the most users

> what can be implemented easily with resources available

***

guidelines are good, but…

> these don’t guarantee usability and accessibiliy

***

informed designs come from data

> go to the user and watch them

***

what makes great design?

> usefulness – founders have no idea how ppl use twitter (e.g.); what is valuable to the user

> efficiency – how does the user accomplish their goals

> effectiveness – accomplishing the goal

> learnability – pay attention to this if ppl are not using the application all the time; ppl need to relearn it all the time

> satisfaction – how happy is someone about using the site

> accessibility – easy as possible

***

goals of usability testing

identify problems that lead to :

> misinformation

> incomplete transactions

> need for support from administration or staff

make it more likely that users can reach their goals

***

what should he design do?

how does it work?

does it do what we want it to do?

types of testing

> exploratory, formative

> assessment, summative

> validation, verification

big ideas:

you don’t have to do it by the book

essentials: someone, somewhere, something

simple is difficult

testing supports great design

value comes from observing users

usability testing fits in each phase

****

developing a test plan

anatomy – (lite version)

a. goals and objectives

what obstacles in obtaining goals; not research questions; not data measures;

objective for usability testing of our new design:

1. assess whether the navigation makes sense for different types of users

2. how well does the site work for different types of users?

b. research questions (should be measurable; should have in mind what tasks we have)

1. how well does the user navigate the site

2. does the search box make any difference in how the users reach their goals

3. how well does the site navigation work for end users

4. what obstacles do users encounter when coming to the site

5. does the starting point make any differenc ein the success

c. participant characteristics -who are they?

d. task descriptions

Group 1 -

1. start at the website itself

2. look  for the book Maus

3. how long can i checkout a book?

e. description of method (how you’re going to gather the data)

highlevel participant; are you going to sit in the room with them? think aloud? include some reference to where you are in the design cycle

techniques -

think aloud:

> tell me what you’re doing

> tell me what you’re thinking

review at end

> walk me through what you did

> how did that go

>was it confusing or frustrating

within tasks themselves – what are you watching for?

how are you measuing that – leads back to research questions

evidence:

> behavoir

> quotes

> error and success rates

> debriefing discussions

“user participant never fails; the design fails”

can do hints or prompts – geographic; telling them specifically to go to next question

rankings or ratings – doesn’t recommend – complicated

for formative tests – you’re not learning anything when you do time on task

measuring time is good for known tasks; summative testing; benchmark testing;

big ideas

know why you’re testing

gather data to answer specific questions

match user goals to testing

identify evidence of success/failure

determine method, techniques

****

finding participants

develop/document characterics

goals of the study

identify key behavoirs

locate sources

***

focus on functionality

know the goals of the study

what suppports behavoir

implies motivation

behavoir not demographics – they do not matter

what you care about is what the person does; age doesn’t matter

recruit for a specific behavoir

***

where to find participants:

education – not difficult to find

invite users

compensation is an incentive

go where users are (e.g. starbucks on the first floor)

tap communities – facebook, twitter, etc. (reminder: send survey to the libraries facebook group)

***

screening & selecting participants

be involved as the researcher in the recruiting process

don’t hand off to an agency or to an admin

can be sure that your expectations are being met

contact with participants is the best way to get someone to show up

market segmentation – represent preferences and opinions about the business; not behavoir

you can’t represent segments in study b/c you can’t do a big enough study

it’s about identifying design problems, not generalizing preferences to a larger audience

pull characteristics from personas; develop profiles; archetype descriptions

if you want to split ppl into groups, then you can think about demographics

look at requirements and classifiers in recruiting participants

***

screening questionnaires – not always necessary

types of questions that would be useful
> tell me about your job

> when was the last itme you conducted training

how many? it depends on degree of confidence; where you are in the design process; available resources; availability of the type of participants needed; duration of the test session

***

based on user testing above:

user profile: researcher needing an article on x; requirements & classifiers: have been to the site before and downloaded articles on at least1 occasion.

big ideas:

visualize the person & her goals

recruit on behavoir (not demographics)

use every community you can think of

screen and select yourself, if possible

ask open-ended questions

19
Jun
09

my new mantra

Stephen Bell at Designing Better Libraries recently wrote about UX strategy flow and affordance. What a great post, Stephen! One line stood out for me in the post that I’m now calling my new mantra: “A design with good flow creates an experience that is painless even when it involves complexity.” I’ve been thinking about and advocating something along these lines since I started in academic libraries. I often bemoan the complexity of our web site and strive daily to reduce the clutter. I’ve been told by many colleagues that as academic libraries, we’re just complex – that’s the way it is – that it’s too challenging to simplify our online services/systems/offerings. It was nice to see someone write that design is so important to influencing the user experience, and that there’s hope in academic libraries for reducing the amount of complexity we present to the end-user.

15
Jun
09

Note to self

There’s a really cool looking Web analytics certificate program out of University of British Columbia. Looks like it covers a wide range of topics on Web analytics and offers some good electives – Would be nice to have a combined course of data mining/visualization and Web analytics.

26
May
09

David Armano’s Heaven + Hell

As many of you out there already know, David Armano is a genius. I had seen many of his clear, thoughtful and brilliant diagrams before but had not looked at his entire archive. I think this diagram “Stairway to Brand Heaven + Hell” sums up my entire research paper about user experience in academic libraries. If there is not trust, authenticity, consistency and positive interactions, how can we expect to please our end users and provide them with satisfying experiences? See all of Armano’s amazing diagrams on Flickr.

David Armanos Brand Heaven + Hell
David Armano’s Brand Heaven + Hell
22
May
09

on a short hiatus

I’ve been researching 2 papers – 1 on user experience strategies in libraries and another on heatmaps. I’m still here, so watch in the coming weeks for some interesting info on what I’ve found on these 2 topics!




Susan's Normal Form (SNF) : "the values have no relation to the keys, which have no relation to the tables, which have no relation to the schema"

 

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