3 Usability Techniques

Three ways to help users understand your informationA usability workshop for World Usability Day
Whitney Quesenbery
Ginny RedishKate Walser
November 10, 2010

Topics for this workshop
Introduction to usability and usability techniques
Three techniques for today
Persona / story walk-through
Hallway review
Informal usability test

Introduction to usability and usability techniques
Poster from Usability Professionals’ Association showing an overview of a user-centered design approach

Plain language and usabilitygo hand in hand
Plain language means that people can
Find what they need
Understand what they find
Use the information to meet their goals
Usability means that people can meet their goals
Effectively (completely, accurately)
Efficiently (in an appropriate amount of time)
With satisfaction

Usability is about people
All kinds of people
doing all kinds of things
online and offline
Photo credits iStockphoto, russeljsmith, Trace Center

Different types ofpeople…doing differenttasks… have differentusability needs
For this person, efficiency and effectiveness are the most important dimensions.
For this person, easy to learn and error tolerant are the most important dimensions.

Usability focuses on users’ behavior
Understanding users' needs
Designing to meet those needs
Making sure you have met those needs
− in the time and effort that users are willing to spend
Attitudes and satisfaction are important.
But most important is what people dowith your document or web site.

Usability is a toolkit of techniques
Do a final usability testto compare to benchmark
Analyze and measurefor maintenance
Prototype (or write drafts) iteratively
Create a style guide and templates
Inventory your content
Develop your content strategy
Do card sorting
Do persona / story walk-throughs
Set measurableusability goals
Do hallway reviews
Write relevant stories
Do rapid, informal iterative usability testing
Create personas
Conduct benchmark usability tests
Watch, listen to, and talk with users as they work(contextual interviews)
Use each technique − when you need it and at the right scale.
Analyze search logs and server logs
Articulate your business goals

Persona / storywalk-through
When you have no timeand no access to users
Persona of a commuter, created in a workshop at the Society for Technical Communication

What is a persona / story walk-through?
A usability technique that
takes no special equipment or set up
gets your whole team involved in the processAnd can even be a bit of fun!
You can do this (and any of our techniques) with
a document (paper, web-based)
an entire web site or a partial web site
a specific web topic or even one web page
We'll call this your "content.”

Step 1: Don’t look at it yet
Sounds contradictory?You have only one chance to look at somethingfor the first time and to think about it like a new user.If you look at it before you try to use it, you’ll see it differently.If you are reviewing your own material, set it aside for a fewhours before you do the persona / story walk-through.

Step 2. Write down your goals for your content
Your site visitors' goals (and their reality)
Your organization'sgoals for this specific document or content
Success − for youand your users
Answer people's questions about your topic
Have people complete a transaction correctly without calling
Get more people to fill out a form correctly without calling

Step 3: Create a mini-persona
Who is using your content?
Who is a typical person for this content?
What adjectives or phrases describe this person?(busy? anxious? curious? nervous? knows relevant technical vocabulary? or not?done this lots of times or never before?)
Give that person a name, an age,a few personal characteristics
Think about how well you know this person, and how much they are − or are not − like you.
Mariella Garcia

Step 4: Tell that persona's story related to your content
Why has that person come to your content?
What is your persona's goal?
What is your persona trying to do? looking for?
What does your persona expect to find? to happen?

Step 5: Walk through your persona's story as the persona
"Channel" your persona.
Start where your persona would in the story.
When / how would your persona get the document?(Open the envelope.)
Where would your persona start in the web story?(Know the URL? Go to Google?)
Go through the content (document, web site, web topic, web page) as if you were the persona carrying out the persona's story.
Take notes of what works well and what does not.

Try it!
We'll work on this example:
Home page of the Tricare web site.
Tricare is the medical insurance company for military personnel, retirees, and their families.
It offers several plans with health, dental, pharmaceutical coverage.
The site must serve current and new customers.
That should be enough for you to set up a persona / story
walk-through.

Try it!
Work with a neighbor
Don't look at it yet.
Write down Tricare's goal(s) for the web site.
Create a mini-persona of one typical user of the Tricare web site.
Write the start of the persona's story. Why is your persona coming to the Tricare site?What does your persona expect to happen?
Now be your persona doing the persona's storyand make notes about how well the Tricare home page works or does not work for your persona and your persona's story.

Considering what you learned
Positives: Did any part of what you were reviewing work well?
Concerns
Relationship problems
Are the organization's goals and the persona's goals in alignment?
How well does the site satisfy either set of goals?
Conversation problems
Are the headings, text, and images meaningful to your persona?
Did your persona understand the words? find where to click?
Appearance problems
Does it look tidy and attractive?
Is space used well?

Making use of what you learned
Reporting
Include at least one positive comment.(You want to keep what is working well.)
Have examples of problems from the persona’s perspective.
Think about how critical the problems are.
Think about what keeps the persona from being successful.
Fixing
Yes, fix the easy-to-fix problems.
But fixing the one or two most critical problems is much more important.

A bit more about being user-centered
What we’ve just done is a persona / story walk-through
The user's story – the persona and goal – guides the review.
Your knowledge of usability and good design helps you understand the problems the persona encounters.
Guidelines or a checklist can help you keep important points in mind.
Ginny did a large review with this technique for AARP.

What are the benefits and risks of this technique?
Benefits
Easy to do.
Doesn't need users, space, equipment.
Risks
You may know less about these users than you think.
Methods that rely only on guidelines are known to be rather poor at predicting actual problems.
You (or your colleagues and managers) may resist doing usability testing because the review seems good enough.
You become over-confident.

Doing a little bit more
Get a second opinion.
More people means more insights and less chance of getting fixated on a minor issue.
Decide whether you want more or less expertisein the persona and the reviewers.
Add a wider coverage of people and tasks.
Include more personas, especially those that contrast.
Include more stories for each persona.
Make the report more comprehensive − if that will actually accomplish what you need.
More detailed descriptions of problems.
Include screenshots to point to specific problems.

Hallway reviews
Getting input from morepeople in your organization
Post-it notes with comments about a home page (portal) for students who are new to the Open University

What is a hallway review?
A usability and design technique to capture feedback from
Target users
Team members
People in the organization
Customers
Post screenshots or examples of the information in
Meeting rooms
Hallways
Online (using tools like Notable − screen shot and link on a later slide)

Step 1: Decide what to review
Which do you want to review?
Information – use a printout of the wording
Information plus design – use a screenshot or wireframe
What do you want hallway reviewers to critique?
Clarity – can someone read and understand it easily?
Tone – does it set the right tone?
Context – is there enough to help with understanding?
“Enablers” – do the surrounding elements (design, headings, label, etc.) help reinforce the message?

Step 2: Think of questions AND bounds
Help frame the feedback
Post personas and sample scenarios / tasks with questions to gauge ability to complete scenario (e.g., What’s the penalty for paying late? Where did you find the answer?)
Post thought-provoking questions (samples on next slide)
What will hallway reviewers know that your personas won’t?
Think of the game “Taboo”
Background information
Internal, insider words, phrases

Sample questions
Could you answer [question 1]? If so, where did you find the information?
How clear is the information?
What else would the reader need to know to understand thisinformation?
Are there any design elements that promote understanding?
What would you suggest rewording?
Are there any words your friends, family, or colleagues wouldhave trouble understanding?

Step 3: Find the right place
High-traffic areas when you need…
Volume
Diverse population
Lower-traffic areas, but with RIGHT people
Subject matter experts
Help desk
Trainers

Step 4: Gather materials and post
Get approval / clearance if needed
Sample materials
Large easel sticky notes
Print-outs of site pages or pamphlets
Post-it notes (arrow post-it notes too!)
Tape
Pens, markers
Answer drop-box (if you want to review answers to questions)

Or set up an online area to collect
Notable – http://www.notableapp.com
flickr – http://www.flickr.com
To give people “Add a note” option, go to You > Your Account > Privacy & Permissions

Step 5: Check in and observe
See reactions as people encounter the review
Check response rate
Post new copies of screenshots if response rate is good
Adjust the “framing” if needed
Provide more clarification on task
Follow up on questions, results as appropriate

Try it!
We'll work on this example:
Information that the Washington State Department of Revenuewrote for every business owner in the state.
Organization's goals:
If business owner owes this tax, pay it.
If business owner does not owe this tax, go on record to say that.
Persona:
Owner of a small business with 10 or fewer employees.
Is very busy; needs to spend most of time focused on the business.
Doesn't want to get in trouble with Revenue, but doesn't know tax law or tax language.
Gets a lot of mail from a lot of sources.

Positives: Did your reviewers make any positive comments?
Concerns: What did you learn from reviewers' comments about -
Appearance problems
Is space used well?

What are the benefits and risks of this technique?
Benefits
Quick and easy
Cheap
Fewer time constraints than scheduled sessions
Can reach more reviewers and cover more ground
Risks
More often, gather feedback from insiders – less often, target users
Similar challenges to focus groups – one reviewer’s commentsmay influence another
Little chance to learn more about the comments

Can we lessen the risks?
Separate the markings from the commentsAsk reviewers to
Initial / mark the area they want to critique
Jot down the comments / ideas and drop in a box andreference the mark (e.g., KW1)
Spread out the hallway reviews
Requires more effort aggregating feedback
Distributes the number of comments that could bias otherreviewers across multiple copies
Use copies of the same screenshots and give each its own“focus” (e.g., clarity, tone, etc.)

Usability testing
Informal testing with people who use your information
Informal usability testing of voting materials at the Farmer's Market in Olympia, Washington

What is a usability test?
Observe real people using something in a realisticor semi-realistic environment
Not just asking them about it
See how easily real people find what they need to accomplish a task
Confirm or challenge assumptions
Improve materials
Don’t argue about design or language. Test with real users.
Learn where and how to prevent mistakes or help peoplerecover from mistakes.
Find where the information is not "plain" enough for peopleto revise it.

How easily can we learn from users?
Gathering feedback from people can be as simple aswatching someone use something to find information.
Let them explore the material as they would really do.
Don’t explain or demo.
Watch what they do.
Note where they do and do not read.
Listen to their comments.
Take their problems seriously.

How easily can we learn from users?
Usability testingdoes not have to be formallengthy, or expensive.
You don’t need
a formal laboratory
100s of participants
special equipment
special recording systems
Poster from Washington State

Why not do this in a group?
In focus groups, you get
preferences
opinions
group consensus
In a usability test, you get
individual behavior and performance
what happened, as well as why

What do you need for a usability test?
What
The material you want to test
Where
A quiet room (Maybe. We know of very successful usability testing in an open marketplace, a hangar at an air show, the chemotherapy center at the NIHClinical Center.)
Who
Moderator
Observer/note-taker
Users: 3 − 6 people, one at a time

The moderator runs the session
Impartial, unbiased, observing
No teaching!
Listen and watch
Open-ended questions: Why?How? What were you doing?
Moderator roles:
Flight attendant: Ensuring safety and comfort
Scientist: Planning, maintaining objectivity, managing data

Briefing the user
Thanks for trying out this […]. Your doing this will help improve this material.
Note: If you never use the words "test" or "evaluate" with the user,you will not have to say "We are not testing you."
You can stop anytime.
Your involvement will be confidential.
If you get stuck or confused, say so.
Please let me know what you are thinking as you use this …

Techniques to maximize information
If the user says, “hmmm” or “oops” or “I wonder…”
Say, “What questions do you have right now?”
If you are doing "think aloud" and the user is silent for 10 or 20 seconds (count!)
Say, “What are you thinking?”
If users stop because they think they're done or they are stuck (and you think there’s a problem)
Summarize what you saw the user do.
Ask "What would you do now?"

Think aloud during − or after the task
Consider asking people to “think aloud” as they work
What they’re doing
Why they’re doing it
If it's a usability test that you can't do with think aloud,go back over the material
Ask the participant to walk you through what they did and why.
Use the material as a guide for the discussion.
Ask if anything was confusing or frustrating.

Different ways of having people try outdifferent materials
Web site where you are observing people both find andunderstand information
Ask participants for their own scenarios. (Have you used this site? What for? Please show me how you did that with this site. or Would you be likely to use this site? What for? Please show me how you would do that with this site.)
Give participants scenarios you have written. (Write scenarios that will have people use parts of the site you are worried about.)
Use both of these with their own scenario first.

Different ways of having people try outdifferent materials
Single document (letter, notice, one web page)
Paraphrase: Have participants
read a section themselves (depending on the document that could be a sentence, a paragraph, a heading and the text under the heading)
tell you in their own words what it means (note what they get right, what they get wrong, and what they leave out)
Read, comment, and answer questions:
Have participants go through the document as they would if you were not there, while commenting to you with their reactions as they go through the document.
Then ask them questions about facts from the document. (You can write the questions like scenarios.)

Observers and note-takers
Watch quietly.
Do not distract the person participating in the usability test.
Do not react to anything that happens during the test.
No laughing, gasps, shaking your head, whispering.
Do not ask questions or try to discuss the test with the participant.

Take good notes.
Write down what you see and hear.
Be specific. Not "he's confused." But "he said he doesn't know what APR means."
Don't translate. Put down the user's words.
Don't infer the user's reasons for doing something. (The moderator may ask as it is happening. If not, at the end, you may be able to ask the moderator to take the user back to the event and ask what was happening then.)
Don't solve problems while taking notes. That's for later. It will take all your concentration to note what is happening.

Watch (and listen) for whether the user
has any trouble understanding or following instructions?
asks questions or appears confused?
has to correct mistakes or re-read information?
has any comments?

Watch and listen to a demostration
We'll demonstrate a short usability test.
You are all observers / note-takers.

Try it
Break into small groups (3-4 people)
Choose 1 person to be the participant
Choose 1 person to be the moderator
Others observe and take notes
Participants all come up to the front to get a briefing while the moderators and observers become familiar with the document we are going to have you try out.

Positives: Did any part of what you were testing work well?
Concerns
Appearance problems
Is space used well?

Base your findings on what the users did and said
Did they read or use the information accurately?
Were there any
signs of hesitation or confusion?
misreadings or misunderstandings?
requests for assistance?
adaptive behavior?(taking out reading glasses, moving closer to the document, holding the paper up to the light − could all be signs of problems with the information design)
surprises?
other expressions of emotion (anger, disgust, delight, satisfaction)− what specific aspects of the materials were those about?

Report on what you observed in the test
How you report depends very much on your situationand the usability maturity of the organization.
Reports can range from
a brief memo of what was agreed on in a debriefing meeting (Everyone involved observed sessions, attended the meeting, and will fix the problems.)
a short report with very brief identifying information, and then bulleted lists or tables of findings and recommendations(Usability testing is well understood and people just need the results to act on.)
a detailed report with an explanation of usability testing, details of what you did, quantitative and qualitative results, video clips and screen shots, recommendations

Can we really find problems runningusability tests with so few people?
Yes!
This is not “science” but a way to find problems…and fix them before the material is released.
Experience tells us that usability testing uncovers problems more clearly than any other method.
Seeing the problem is the first step to solving it.

Rocket Surgery technique
Steve Krug's "do it yourself" method
test on a regular schedule, a morning a month
test to get answers to a limited number of issues
3 participants (one hour each)
observers note 3 insights from each of the 3 sessions
debrief and decide immediately after the sessions
to participate in decisions based on the test,you must observe at least on session
no report! just a brief memo of what the team will change inthe next month
tweak to fix; just do what is needed to eliminate the problems

Usability is a toolkit of techniques
Do a final usability testto compare to benchmark
Analyze and measurefor maintenance
Prototype (or write drafts) iteratively
Create a style guide and templates
Inventory your content
Develop your content strategy
Do card sorting
Do persona / story walk-throughs
Set measurableusability goals
Do hallway reviews
Write relevant stories
Do rapid, informal iterative usability testing
Create personas
Conduct benchmark usability tests
Watch, listen to, and talk with users as they work(contextual interviews)
Use each technique − when you need it and at the right scale.
Analyze search logs and server logs
Articulate your business goals

Usability andaccessibility must be designed in
They can’t be piled on top after the rest of the design is done!

Plain language matters.
The Center advocates for clear communication and plain language everywhere − in government, business, non-profits, and universities.

We support those who use plain language, train those who should use plain language, and urge people to demand plain language in all the documents they receive, read, and use.

The Center’s projects include:
ClearMark awards, celebrating the best in clear communication and plain language
WonderMark awards, telling the world what’s not plain.
Demand to Understand, encouraging everyone to demand clear communications before they sign an agreement.
Educational programs about plain language− like this one.

Plain Language and usability resources
What is plain language?http://centerforplainlanguage.org/about-plain-language/
How-to for plain language: guidelines and tools http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/index.cfm
How-to for usability: basics, templates, and guidelines http://www.usability.gov
Toolkit for starting plain language in your organizationhttp://centerforplainlanguage.org/toolkit/
Usability training at Web Manager Universityhttp://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/
Usability Professionals’ Associationhttp://www.usabilityprofessionals.org

Books on usability and plain language
Handbook of Usability Testing (2nd Edition) by Jeffrey Rubin and Dana Chisnell
Letting Go of the Words by Ginny Redish
Rocket Surgery Made Easy (The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems)by Steve Krug
Storytelling for User Experience by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks

Janice (Ginny) RedishRedish & Associateswww.redish.net
ginny@redish.net
Whitney QuesenberyWQusabilitywww.wqusability.comwhitneyq@wqusability.com
Kate WalserCX Insightswww.cxinsights.comkate@cxinsights.com

http://centerforplainlanguage.org	274
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3 Usability Techniques

by Whitney Quesenbery

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