Transcript Chapter 10 Usability

Chapter 10
Usability
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Usability
‣ Refers to how successfully and satisfactorily a
person uses a product, document, or website
‣ Means that a product, document, or website is
‣ Easy to learn
‣ Easy to remember
‣ Efficient
‣ Satisfying
‣ Error free
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Usability focuses on the user’s
interaction with a product,
document, or website; it does
not focus simply on the product,
document, or website by itself
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Usability in the Workplace
‣ Can refer to either external or internal users
‣ Results from “usability testing”
‣ Tests the effectiveness of documents before
the final document is produced
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Usability and UserCentered Design
‣ Is important because not all users are alike
‣ Considers users’ skills, particularly those that
implement emerging technologies
‣ Is a means to give users the most satisfying
and efficient experiences with documents or
websites
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Phases in Developing
Usable Documents
‣ Pre-design involves analyzing who the users are,
what tasks they will need to perform, and the
places in which these tasks will be performed
‣ Usability Measurement involves users testing a
product or website and providing information to
designers about usability issues such as
learnability or ease of use.
‣ Iterative Design involves fixing problems
discovered by users during the previous stage
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Usability Tests
‣ Begin with a planning session where test goals are clearly
articulated and understood
‣ Must use participants who represent the specified users of the
document or product
‣ Must engage in real tasks similar to those a real user would
complete
‣ Must be observed and recorded by experts
‣ Must analyze the data received from the tests and change the
document or website to make it more usable
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Where Usability Testing
Takes Place
‣ In the lab — a controlled environment
‣ Outside the lab — any room available
‣ In the field — after a document, website, or
product has been released and is being used
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Planning, Conducting, and
Reporting Usability Tests
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Establish a Team
‣ Of participants to observe closely and keenly
‣ Of enough participants based on the size of the
project
‣ Of members who have an interest in learning more
about the usability of the document
‣ Of members each come to the project with
different viewpoints
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Define Parameters
‣ Based on budget and time
‣ Based on particular issues and concerns
‣ Based on facilities available for testing
‣ Based on the audience who will look at the
test results
‣ Based on other important information
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Define the User Profile
‣ By identifying the kinds of people who
typically use the document or website
‣ By making it specific and narrow for the best
results
‣ By defining different subgroups of users
based upon frequency or expertise
‣ By considering factors like user experience,
stress, attitudes, motivations
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Establish Issues & Goals
‣ By considering concerns that team members
have about the document or website being tested
‣ By deciding upon a variety of central issues that
guide the testing plan
‣ By understanding users and their needs, desires,
and preferences
‣ By providing concrete and quantifiable means to
measure test results
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Write the Test Plan
‣ To put everything down in writing
‣ To allow others to see what the test will
accomplish
‣ To outline the test and its procedures
‣ To clarify the issues and goals that make up
the test
‣ To show participants and timeframe
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Recruit and Screen
Participants
‣ By contacting them directly or by hiring an
outside consulting firm to recruit them
‣ By clearly understanding the user profile
‣ By looking for participants that fit the profile
‣ By advertising for and/or searching for
participants
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Conduct the Test
and Collect Data
‣ By observing the participants engaged in tasks
and accurately collecting data that derives
from the participants’ work
‣ By filming or using an appropriate technology
‣ By taking notes during the test on pre-made
data collection sheets
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Administer Post-Test
Questionnaires
‣ To allow participants to provide feedback
about their experiences
‣ To solicit both qualitative and quantitative
responses
‣ To provide a neutral line of questioning for
answers that are not led
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Analyze Findings
‣ To find problems that the team might have
overlooked
‣ To distinguish between identifying a problem
and identifying the cause of a problem
‣ To determine the severity of the problems
‣ To classify the nature of problems, the causes
of problems, and the severity of the problems
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Report Results and
Make Recommendations
‣ By identifying the audience for the report
‣ By choosing a format for the report that fits
the audience
‣ By using a cover letter, a summary, a table of
contents, and appendices (when appropriate)
‣ By summarizing methodology, results and
recommendations (when appropriate)
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Ethical Considerations
in Usability Testing
‣ Brief participants about the test process
‣ Create unbiased questionnaires
‣ Use consent and anonymous disclosure forms
‣ Conduct testing in the field
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Website Usability Challenges
‣ Users may be hard to identify
‣ Websites do not work in a linear fashion the
way traditional documents do
‣ Websites are more likely than print
documents to use diverse color schemes,
graphics, and images
‣ Writing styles on websites differ from
traditional documents
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.