In-class project usability testing

Due 2023-12-01, 11:59pm EST 3pts 100min

Please ask any questions about this assignment in class, or later today on Slack.

You should work with other students on this assignment.

Table of Contents

• Change Log
• Aim of the assignment
• Instructions
  • Usability testing
    • Setup
    • For each participant you run
      • The interviewer should
      • The note-taker should
      • The participant should
  • Synthesis and project work
• Submission instructions
• Grading rubric

Change Log

• 2023-11-21: Remove mentions of Zoom & Teams for the in-person activity.

Aim of the assignment

Today you will evaluate the usability of each other’s project visualizations. Members of other groups will be testing your project, and give you comments and suggestions about it. This should help guide your final project development.

Instructions

Usability testing

For the first 50 min of class you will conduct the study.

Setup

1. Each project group should set up a station for people to rotate through somewhere in the classroom.
2. Your group’s members will rotate through the following three roles: Interviewer➡Note-taker➡Participant. Decide who will be in each role first. If you only have two members, you’ll just have Interviewer/Note-taker & Participant. If you have four members, you’ll have two Participants.
3. Review the instructions for how to run the study and what to do afterwards.
4. When instructed to do so, begin the first study session. When instructed to move on to the next study session, the Interviewer becomes the Note-taker, the Note-taker becomes a Participant, and a Participant returns to their project group’s station to become the Interviewer. Do not participate in the same study twice.
5. You will run ~9 participants through your study, each spending 5 minutes with you.

For each participant you run

The interviewer should

1. Introduce yourself to the study participant.
2. Make sure participant is situated and knows how to use trackpad/mouse at the designated laptop.
3. Ask the participant if they have seen any previous drafts/versions of your project, and if “yes” at what stage of development.
4. Ask the participant if they have any past experience with or knowledge of your project topic past what they have seen in class.
5. Instruct the participant to browse your final project visualization!
6. Instruct the participant that they are allowed to ask questions as they browse.
7. Do not give your participant a walk-through of the visualization, let them explore and ask you questions if they get stuck.
8. After the participant appears to have gone through the webpage and visualization, ask the participant what they learned or gathered from your visualization.
9. Ask the participant if they have any additional comments or questions.
10. If you have specific questions or features you want feedback on, ask now.
11. Thank your participant!

The note-taker should

1. Introduce yourselves to the study participant.
2. Take notes! Pay particular attention to:
   1. what the users interact with the visualization
   2. what are they able to accomplish quickly
   3. where are they confused
   4. whether they interact in unexpected ways
   5. whether any technical bugs are revealed

The participant should

1. Be flexible, courteous, and remember to practice constructive criticism.
2. Follow a think-aloud protocol, constantly speaking their intents, discoveries, and any problems they have.

At the end of the study, work with your group to review the comments and questions you received. Look for common trends, “hacks,” points of confusion, what works well, bugs… All of this feedback should guide your continued development and preparation for presentations.

Synthesis and project work

For the last 50 min of class:

1. Summarize & synthesize the feedback you received. Look for common trends, “hacks”, points of confusion, what works well, bugs… All of this feedback should guide your continued development and preparation for presentations.
2. Using that feedback, create a to-do list of the bugs you need to fix, features/functionality you need to add to the visualization, changes to the model you need to make, etc.
3. Based on your to-do lists of tasks and bugs, continue programming and editing together to make sure your project works and is usable.

Submission instructions

Submit a single PDF of your to-do list to the assignment In-class project usability testing in GradeScope.

Grading rubric

This is a satisfactory grading assignment. If you followed the instructions you receive full marks and if not you receive a 0. Your submission is satisfactory if you completed the exploration and your writing evidences a critical and thoughtful effort.

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