Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By : Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji
Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By: Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji

Overview of this book

Usability testing is a subdiscipline of User Experience. Its goal is to ensure that a given product is easy to use and the user's experience with the product is intuitive and satisfying. Usability studies are conducted with study participants who are representative of the target users to gather feedback on a user interface. The feedback is then used to refine and improve the user interface. Remote studies involve fewer logistics, allow participation regardless of location and are quicker and cheaper to execute compared to in person studies, while delivering valuable insights. The users are not inhibited by being in a new environment under observation; they can act naturally in their familiar environment. Remote unmoderated studies additionally have the advantage of being independent of time zones. This book will teach you how to conduct qualitative remote usability studies, in particular remote moderated and unmoderated studies. Each chapter provides actionable tips on how to use each methodology and how to compensate for the specific nature of each methodology. The book also provides material to help with planning and executing each study type.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
8
What to Consider When Analyzing and Presenting the Study Results
Index

Discussion guide


The moderator creates a discussion guide based on their conversations with the stakeholders concerning the study's goals. The moderator then uses the discussion guide to structure the session, and to make sure that he covers all of the tasks with each participant.

Anatomy of a discussion guide

A discussion guide has different sections. The approximate times per section are based on a one-hour session duration, as follows:

  • Introduction (5 minutes)
  • Warm-up (5 minutes)
  • Tasks (40 minutes)
  • Post-session questions (5 minutes)
  • Wrap-up (5 minutes)

Sample discussion guides are provided in the appendix.

 

Introduction

The introduction is used to set the stage and tone for the session, and for the moderator to build rapport with the study participant. The moderator performs the following:

  • Introduces himself
  • Thanks the participant for participating in the study
  • Describes what will happen in the session
  • Stresses that the goal is to get honest user feedback
  • Explains that there are no right or wrong answers...