HTW Berlin Fachbereich 4 Internationaler Studiengang Internationale Medieninformatik (Bachelor) WT2: Usability Winter Term 2017/18

1. Choose the university that you will be testing!
2. Decide what kind of test you will be doing. Do you want to do a formative evaluation? This helps improve interface design. Here you learn why something went wrong, not just that it went wrong. You will want to collect process data—qualitative observations of what happened and why. Or do you prefer to do a summative evaluation? Here you assesses overall quality of the interface and test some definite performance requirements. You collect bottom-line data—quantitative measurements of performance: How long did users take, were they successful, how many errors did they make. It does not matter which you choose, and you may even do both if you wish. But you need to differentiate between the two in your final report if you do.
   
   
3. Normally, you would have a dedicated usability room that is quiet, has sufficient lighting, and has refreshments on hand. We will have to make do with WH C 579, but you still need to describe the testing room for your final report. So describe the lab! Hardware, software (browser and version), etc.
   
   
4. Now develop your scenarios. These are the tasks that you want to give your testers to complete. Your testing time will be approx. 40 minutes. Give them names. What exactly will the tasks for each test person be? Since they have different goals, they will have different scenarios that they go through. Write down the exact steps that your test persons will have to do. Estimate how much time will be necessary to solve the problem. You should develop more scenarios than you think you will need.
   
   
5. Develop a Non-Disclosure Agreement similar to the one Keith Andrews uses that is tailored to your test. If you are planning to be recording anything, you need the permission of your testers in order to legally do so, so develop a permission form as well.

Please read Bruce Tognazzi's article on how to prepare a professional report before you begin your report! Your report on this portion is due by 22.00 the night before the next exercise.

Some rights reserved. CC-BY-SA 2017 Debora Weber-Wulff (weberwu@htw-berlin.de)