Re: Usability testing for Web apps

On 6/26/07, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
> Our users will be trained and will use the application as their main work tool

This looks like an application for internal use. IMO these
applications are not to be tested like a public web site but as an
internal system.

Prior to this you have use cases the users have agreed that are
representative of the tasks they perform.
This somehow ensures that navigation is appropriate.

I have tested these applications with a "pilot", a reduced
application. Reduced in data size or in scope in any form, for example
"only for people in section X".

A set of a few users are trained and asked to do work as if it were
real, with real data but not "the" real data. In a test environment.

It works like an interview. You go to the user´s workplace and observe
the way they do, one at a time, and take note of all the issues they
run into.
You do not deffend the design but instead you assume by default that
if the user has trouble it's not that they are morons resisting change
but thet the UI is not so clear as you beleived.
This is a good opportunity for identifying flaws in the UI wording, an
application object named differently than what the user's "conceptual
model" requires. You must lilsten the user and catch any words she
says that are not in the UI, ask "how did you call this?" and change
the UI to reflect the name the user uses.
Also, catch user questions like "where is the X?" because it means the
user needs an "X" there an either the "X" is not there, or it's not
properly labeled.
After a few days ask the same user to do the same task on the modified
UI and also another user if possible. The task should flow from start
thru completion with no glitches.
And becuase the UI is fixed, not because the user gets used. This is
why you summon new users at each iteration.

Then, when the main tasks flow, you are done testing.
--
Juan Lanus
TECNOSOL
Argentina

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