User Testing Briefing
Welcome and thanks for stopping by. I’m <EXPERIMENT LEADER NAME> and this is <OBSERVER NAME> and we’d like to have your help to evaluate our proposed user interface. It’s for a system designed to help MIT dorm desk workers with their commons tasks. Today you will be a desk worker and we’ll guide you through a couple of tasks and scenarios that desk workers commonly face. Before we start, we’d like to remind you that your participation in this evaluation is completely voluntary and you may stop at any time. Any problems you encounter are not your fault, they are solely the interface’s, and we need your help to find them. I’ll am the experiment leader and <OBSERVER NAME> is the observer. This means I’ll prompt you tasks and try to answer your questions the best I can and <OBSERVER NAME> will be watching and taking notes for me. We’d like you to think out loud as much as possible to help us get an idea of your thought processes as you explore and use our interface.
Scenario Tasks
Task 1
Log in to deskdash using the following login information and check to see if there are any pressing matters since the last time you worked.
username: username
password: password
Task 2
The UPS delivery man just delivered a package with the following address fields:
From:
Amazon Inc.
100 Amazon Way
Seattle, WA 12345
To:
Ben Bitdiddle
Room 123
MIT Simmons Hall
229 Vassar Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
The dorm you are working at sorts packages according to the first letter of the recipient's last name as follows:
A-H : bin1
I-P : bin 2
Q-Z : bin 3
Register this package according to the dorm's sorting method.
Task 3
Alyssa P Hacker would like to borrow the dorm's vacuum cleaner. Check it out for her.
Task 4
Ben Bitdiddle arrives at desk and asks for his package and the movie The Lion King. Check out his package and The Lion King.
Task 4.5 (only used during the second iteration of testing)
The bathroom in the lobby is supposed to be painted on Monday but the painters just called and said they can't make it until Tuesday. Make sure the other deskworkers know about this change.
Task 4.55 (only used during the second iteration of testing)
Earlier you registered a package for Alyssa P Hacker but it was actually for Alyssa P Smacker. Fix this.
Task 5
Logout of deskdash.
User Testing Round 1 Prototype Photos
These figures reflect the design of deskdash during the initial round of user testing:
Fig 1. Log in screen
Fig 2. Home screen
Fig 3. Packages screen
Fig 4. Items screen
Fig 5. Searching for "Harry Potter and the Deathly"
Fig. 6 Checking out an item
User Testing Round 1 Observations
- "I wish the system knew which bin the package was supposed to go in and autopopulated the field as soon as I typed the recipient's name"
- Users weren’t fully comfortable using the sidebar at first because they were new to the system---they said they preferred to return to the homepage where every button had a caption, but that they would use the sidebar once they got used to the system.
- Every tester tried to add the vacuum cleaner to the system instead of making a note
User Testing Round 2 Prototype Photos
These figures reflect the design of deskdash during the initial round of user testing:
User Testing Round 2 Briefing
This remained the same from the first round of user testing to the second.
User Testing Round 2 Observations
Usability problems you discovered from the testing. Describe what users did, but don't record users' names. Record these as a series of high-level takeaways, focusing on the usability problems you saw, rather than what each participant did. For instance, you might describe how you had some learnability issues with your prototype, as evidenced by users B and C clicking all of the menus to try to find option X.
Prototype Iteration
You did two rounds of paper prototyping. Describe how your prototype changed between those two rounds.
Usability problems you discovered from the testing. Describe what users did, but don't record users' names. Record these as a series of high-level takeaways, focusing on the usability problems you saw, rather than what each participant did. For instance, you might describe how you had some learnability issues with your prototype, as evidenced by users B and C clicking all of the menus to try to find option X.
Prototype Iteration
You did two rounds of paper prototyping. Describe how your prototype changed between those two rounds.