Re: "Living Rooms" in Usability Labs

Can possibly provide kids you can borrow for the "kids running around"  
part. They will "work" for free, probably.

ljr






On Sep 2, 2010, at 10:58 AM, Jaime Guerrero wrote:

> the Sun Menlo Park usability labs has its largest room reconfigured  
> as a "playspace" with funky furniture, trendy lighting, etc.  This  
> was used beneficially in a few consumer product studied, but I doubt  
> the investment in redecorating the room really paid off in more  
> accurate test results.
>
> I've used Cisco's generic usability labs "tricked out" with comfy  
> lounge chairs (borrowed from the labs' lobby), potted plants, lamps,  
> and a big HD TV.  That environment was successfully used to test a  
> consumer TV product.  Test Subjects seemed to accept the livingroom- 
> like environment and behave as they would at home.  The chair  
> seating angle I believe is a critical element in a realistic  
> environment.  No one seated in a "task chair" is going to hold their  
> body nor a remote control in the same way as they would on the sofa  
> in a living room.  Additional detail that would make for a more  
> realistic test environment would be harder to simulate in a lab:  
> kids running around, spouse interference/collaboration, the phone  
> ringing, being tired at the end of the day, etc.
>
> the Sun Santa Clara Java-Mobility usability lab was used to test  
> mobile devices.  I am guessing that this was slightly less accurate,  
> since the environmental dimensions of using a mobile device are a  
> big part of their usability.  For example, being in a distracting,  
> noisy, visually stimulating, constantly-changing environment, having  
> to look up when crossing the street, etc.  In the lab, the user  
> either had the device bolted to a desk (very unrealistic) or they  
> held it but there was a gooseneck-mounted camera glued to the device  
> with a long cable, limiting movement and making the whole thing  
> heavy and unwieldy (which is not the UX when using a mobile  
> device).  It's tough doing realistic usability testing on a device  
> if you want to capture traditional u-testing data such as screen  
> video and face video.
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2010, at 7:07pm, Mitchell Gass wrote:
>
>> For studies of products that are most likely to be used in a living  
>> room, a client is interested in adding a "living room" test room to  
>> their existing usability lab. I believe I've seen two in the Bay  
>> Area, one at Intuit and another at the old Sun Microsystems lab in  
>> Mountain View. Do these still exist? Are there others? If you've  
>> designed or used rooms like these, do you have any advice you can  
>> give for someone who'd like to build a room like this?
>>
>> Thanks for any suggestions!
>>
>> Mitchell Gass
>> uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
>> Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
>> +1 510 525-6864 office
>> +1 415 637-6552 mobile
>> +1 510 525-4246 fax
>> http://www.participatorydesign.com/
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