Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older Adults

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Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older
Adults

• Thomas S. Tullis, Ph.D.
• Senior Vice President
• Human Interface Design
• Fidelity Investments
• tom.tullis_at_fmr.com

Seminar on Older Users and the Web GSA
AARP Washington, DC July 20, 2004
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Usability Lab at Fidelity
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Usability Tests with Older Adults
Over the past 3 years, weve conducted usability
sessions with about 150 people 50 or older.
Oldest participant 85 Wide range of Web skills
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Tips for Testing with Older Users

• Recruiting
• Planning and Preparation
• Testing
• Participatory design (FIDO)

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Recruiting Tips

• If you care about level of web expertise, may
  need to develop better screening criteria
• Frequency of web use
• How long theyve been using the web
• Variety of sites visited
• Variety of tasks performed (email, purchasing,
  etc)
• How they learned to use the web
• Those who retired before the web was common in
  the workplace will tend to have less web
  expertise, even if they use it every day.

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Recruiting Tips

• Consider networking for recruiting
• e.g., family and friends, contacts, etc
• Older adults seem less likely to respond to cold
  call requests to participate
• Logistics of getting to the test
• Consider conducting it at a Senior Center.
• Consider special arrangements for getting to a
  Usability Lab.
• Let them bring their spouse or a friend.
• Make sure all aspects of the test are described
  before-hand (e.g., videotaping).

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Planning and Preparation Tips

• Consider using co-discovery (paired users)
• Especially appropriate for husband and wife
• Be prepared for them to show up for the test
  early!
• Schedule more time for a session than you would
  with younger users.
• For pre-test briefing
• For actual testing
• For post-test debriefing

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Planning and Preparation Tips

• Learn as much about their normal computer
  environment as possible and try to replicate it,
  e.g.
• Operating system
• Browser
• Monitor size
• Screen resolution
• Special keyboard characteristics (e.g., larger
  keys)
• Mouse type (e.g., scroll wheel or not)

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Testing Tips

• If you normally moderate the study from another
  room, consider moderating from the same room as
  the user.
• Puts the user more at ease.
• Works better for users with hearing impairments.
• Some older users have an even greater tendency to
  attribute difficulties they encounter to
  themselves.
• Watch for this and be prepared to deal with it.

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Testing Tips

• Be particularly careful about using web or
  technical jargon in your
• Task descriptions
• Interaction with the user
• Some terms you might not think of as jargon
• Home
• Login
• Window

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Participatory Design Tips

• A technique that has worked well for us to
  involve older adults in the user-centered design
  process
• FIDO Freehand Interactive Design Offline
• For details, see paper presented at UPA 2004
• Donna Tedesco, Ann Chadwick-Dias, Tom Tullis
  (2004). Freehand Interactive Design Offline
  (FIDO) A New Methodology for Participatory
  Design.
• Contact donna.tedesco_at_fidelity.com.

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The FIDO Technique

• Give users a set of web-page components, or
  building blocks, printed on magnetic paper.
• Ask them to build their own page(s).

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Our Study Using FIDO

• Took screen shots of the home pages of
  Fidelity.com plus five of our competitors.
• Anonymized them (removed references to company
  names, etc).

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Our Study Using FIDO

• Printed the screen-shots (in grayscale) on
  magnetic-backed paper.
• Laminated them.
• Cut them into their components (abt 130).

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Presented the Elements to Users
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Simulated Browser Window
Asked users to build their ideal financial
services homepage.
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A Sample Session
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Data Collection
Took digital photos of the pages built.
Also took digital photos under black light to
facilitate documenting the element IDs!
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Sample Pages Built
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Advantages of FIDO

• Less anxiety-producing than interacting with a
  real system, especially for older adults.
• Fun and interactive!
• Use as much space as you need.
• Can be done as a group exercise.
• Users could be allowed to add their own content.