Digital Capture for Usability Testing

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Digital Capture for Usability Testingand more!

• Janet Yanosko and Sara Memmott
• University of Michigan-Dearborn

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Digital Capture for Usability Testingand more!

• Need Revise library web site
• Tool Usability testing using digital capture
• Result Improved web site and an application that
  can be used for other user studies

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Testing Timeline

• Research, reading, and planningOct 2002-Feb 2003
• Human subject approvalMarch 2003
• User testing of other library web sites, using
  digital captureApril 2003

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Testing Timeline - 2

• Testing draft site with static images and key
  pages September 2003
• New site went publicJanuary 2003
• Retested and revised site July August 2004

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Digital Capture

• Cheap already had what we needed
• Easy for small staff
• No video camera not threatening to users
• Easier to interact with users during test
• Portable

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Testing other library sites

• Get user input before spending time designing.
• Used libraries that had done user testing and/or
  had features we liked
• University of Arizona
• University of Massachusettes\Amherst
• University of Oregon
• University of California Santa-Cruz

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Equipment

• Encoding software Helix Producer Basic 9.0
• 2 ordinary PCs, available for other uses when not
  testing
• Encoding PC
• Osprey 210 Multimedia capture card (180)
• Subject PC
• S-video out capable video card ATI All-in-Wonder
  Pro (180)
• Microphone for recording audio

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People

• Library tech set up hardware software
• 2 librarians for each user testing session
• 3-4 users per test.
• 10-15 gift certificate each

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Before January 2003
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Draft September 2003
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Revision August 2004
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Today
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Other Applications

• Investigating user research behavior
• Tutorials

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Studying User Research Behavior

• FERA (Formative Evaluation Research Associates)
  conducted interviews and recorded students
  demonstrating typical research behavior.
• Observations were found to be more valuable than
  interviews
• Captured what students actually do when they sit
  down to do research

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Online Tutorials

• Demonstrate use of library databases, finding
  resources on the web site, etc.
• Segmented tutorials can be made quickly.
• Easily updated as web site or databases change.

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Top Tips for Usability Testing

1. Find out if you need approval to test human
   subjects.
2. Keep it short three tests will give you the
   information you need.
3. Keep it simple do testing with a rough
   draft/mockup

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Top Tips for Usability Testing

• Use your coworkers as guinea pigs.
• Offer subjects incentives, such as gift
  certificates.
• Make sure your subjects realize that its the
  website and not them being evaluated.

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Top Tips for Usability Testing

1. If test subjects are quiet, prompt them. Ask
   them to explain what they see or why they clicked
   on a link.
2. If the test subjects are having trouble finding
   something on the screen, dont let it go on so
   long that they get frustrated. Let them know
   its ok and move on to the next question.