Re: Best Practices for Measuring Usability

Hi Sandeep,

Read http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=tutorials&article=25-1
which is a quick guide to formative evaluation. While it focuses on
online courses, it is applicable to any type of software. I suggest
questions to use to elicit feedback, such as "'Why did you click
there?' or 'What are you trying to find?' if the user isn't
volunteering the information." I hope it's helpful,
Lisa
-- 
Lisa Neal Gualtieri, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, eLearn Magazine, http://eLearnMag.org
Adjunct Clinical Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Blog on health and education: http://lisaneal.com
Phone: 781-861-7373
Email: [email protected]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:11 AM,  <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I appreciate all the quick response; all the materials were really helpful
> to get an idea and gathering knowledge about usability testing; however
> would still be waiting if someone would like to share their experiences
> regarding any major problems faced during the user testing; as while
> conducting few of my tests, I noticed that few of the users were very
> conscious when they knew that they are being noticed and the sessions are
> being recorded. I believe this would not lead me to the results I am
> targeting for; also I noticed that they are unable to think a loud as I
> see them being conscious and hastate to do so in presence of a
> representative taking notes; any guidance or shearing from the members
> would be great help.
>
> Thanks once again.
>
> Best Regards,
> Sandeep Rathod
> Sr. HCI Designer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Zycus - SAVE WITH EASE
> Email: [email protected] | Tel. Desk: +91 22 6640 7676 (Extn: 7689)
> Website: http://www.zycus.com
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>
>
>
>
> "Albert, Bill" <[email protected]>
> Sent by: "ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)"
> <[email protected]>
> 09/12/2008 06:34 AM
>
> Please respond to
> "Albert, Bill" <[email protected]>
>
>
> To
> [email protected]
> cc
>
> Subject
> Re: CHI-WEB Digest - 5 Sep 2008 to 11 Sep 2008 (#2008-55)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I would also add another book to your recommended reading list, which I
> recently wrote (with Tom Tullis). It is called "Measuring the User
> Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics". It
> just came out this past Spring, and I think it might be quite useful for
> your situation. Best of luck,
>
> Bill Albert
>
> ******************************************
> William Albert, Ph.D.
> Director of User Experience
> Fidelity Investments
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ACM SIGCHI WWW Human Factors (Open Discussion)
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of CHI-WEB automatic digest
> system
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 8:00 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: CHI-WEB Digest - 5 Sep 2008 to 11 Sep 2008 (#2008-55)
>
> There are 3 messages totalling 187 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>  1. Best Practices for Measuring Usability (3)
>
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> Date:    Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:32:57 +0530
> From:    [email protected]
> Subject: Best Practices for Measuring Usability
>
> Hello
>
> I Design User Interface while enforcing User Centered Design approach
> for
> web based products. as the product was under the pilots where management
>
> have encountered many usability issues with the product ease of use
> while
> in demo with end users; they now have decided to conduct a usability
> testing before we plan the next release cycle.
>
> As a lead User Experience Designer this comes in my plate and I have
> less
> then 2 month to provide a report with the issues and solutions to
> improve
> the product usability (we are targeting at zero learning application)
> for
> the next release cycle to plan. I plan to conduct the testing with 10
> users per feature based on preset criteria - Task Completion, Errors,
> User
> Satisfaction and amount of Time to accomplish the task.
>
> I am novice to usability testing and have never conducted it before; I
> would like to learn some of your experiences and learning over the
> subject. If we can share some sample report formats would be a great
> help.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Best Regards,
> Sandeep Rathod
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:39:27 -0400
> From:    Sharon Laskowski <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Best Practices for Measuring Usability
>
> This sounds like a summative, baselining type of test given the =20
> metrics you have outlined.   You could start with the ISO standard =20
> usability test format:
> ISO/IEC 25062:2006
> http://www.iso.org/iso/search.htm?qt=3D25062&sort=3Drel&type=3Dsimple&pu
> blis=
> hed=3Don
> Software engineering -- Software product Quality Requirements and =20
> Evaluation (SQuaRE) -- Common Industry Format (CIF) for usability test
> =20
> reports
>
> also see http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr/ for other information.
>
> Sharon
>
>
> Quoting [email protected]:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> I Design User Interface while enforcing User Centered Design approach
> for
>> web based products. as the product was under the pilots where
> management
>> have encountered many usability issues with the product ease of use
> while
>> in demo with end users; they now have decided to conduct a usability
>> testing before we plan the next release cycle.
>>
>> As a lead User Experience Designer this comes in my plate and I have
> less
>> then 2 month to provide a report with the issues and solutions to
> improve
>> the product usability (we are targeting at zero learning application)
> for
>> the next release cycle to plan. I plan to conduct the testing with 10
>> users per feature based on preset criteria - Task Completion, Errors,
> User
>> Satisfaction and amount of Time to accomplish the task.
>>
>> I am novice to usability testing and have never conducted it before; I
>> would like to learn some of your experiences and learning over the
>> subject. If we can share some sample report formats would be a great
> help.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Sandeep Rathod
>>
>>     --------------------------------------------------------------
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> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:00:59 -0500
> From:    SH Ramlet <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Best Practices for Measuring Usability
>
> Hi, Sandeep,
>
> What you are asking is rather broad--it's almost like asking for a quick
> tutorial in best practices for software development. It is difficult to
> give
> you targeted information for such a broad topic in a short period of
> time.
> Have you considered hiring a consultant who has a methodology already in
> place? That's a great opportunity to: 1) get your project completed
> quickly,
> and 2) learn from them to develop your own internal methodology going
> forward.
>
> That said, there are several excellent texts on usability testing; one
> that
> I have found useful is Jeffrey Rubin's "Handbook of Usability Testing",
> which I find to be a good primer on the topic. It includes some
> templates,
> as well.
>
> You can also find great resources on the web site of the Usability
> Professionals' Association:  http://www.upassoc.org. Specifically, there
> is
> a nice section on Methods:
> http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/guidelines_and_methods/
>
> I hope that helps get you started--
>
> Susan Ramlet
> Usability Engineer, Enterprise Applications
> Medtronic
>
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 6:02 AM, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> I Design User Interface while enforcing User Centered Design approach
> for
>> web based products. as the product was under the pilots where
> management
>> have encountered many usability issues with the product ease of use
> while
>> in demo with end users; they now have decided to conduct a usability
>> testing before we plan the next release cycle.
>>
>> As a lead User Experience Designer this comes in my plate and I have
> less
>> then 2 month to provide a report with the issues and solutions to
> improve
>> the product usability (we are targeting at zero learning application)
> for
>> the next release cycle to plan. I plan to conduct the testing with 10
>> users per feature based on preset criteria - Task Completion, Errors,
> User
>> Satisfaction and amount of Time to accomplish the task.
>>
>> I am novice to usability testing and have never conducted it before; I
>> would like to learn some of your experiences and learning over the
>> subject. If we can share some sample report formats would be a great
> help.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Sandeep Rathod
>>
>>    --------------------------------------------------------------
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>>                    mailto:[email protected]
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