This document discusses principles and best practices for conducting usability testing of historic newspapers. It defines usability as ensuring a website works well and can be used as intended without frustration. Key lessons include minimizing complexity, prioritizing important content, providing consistent navigation, clear error messages, and help functions. The document outlines types of usability testing, recruiting participants, planning test tasks, and analyzing results to identify usability problems. Recommendations emphasize balancing content and white space, following standards, and enabling feedback.
2 hour workshop for UX Camp Amsterdam 2015
Getting to a better design fast. User Checks is an agile way of usability testing with the focus on creating value. With User Checks the design accelerates to a higher level within a short period and relatively low cost and little resources. User Checks maximize the key element of usability testing: getting to empathy.
45 minute mini workshop for Ladies that UX Amsterdam meetup
Introducing User Checks, a method of agile usability testing + learning by doing, a live user check with the meetup.com site.
Yes U can! - User Checks; iterative usability testing with actionable resultsAnouschka Scholten
45 min Workshop @UXCamp Amsterdam 2018 about User Checks, a method for agile usability testing + getting to actionable results fast. Learning by doing: user check in 45 minutes
These set of slides will explain the importance of maintaining the user friendly features of any website. It contains statistics gathered from researches that have been already conducted and stats collected over the internet to quantitatively prove the importance of the aforementioned title.
I gave this presentation to my team within software development at Iatric Systems in February 2015.
I cover usability heuristics, applying these heuristics to user interfaces, content guidelines, designing for patient-facing applications, and the differences between designing for mobile vs. designing for desktop.
2 hour workshop for UX Camp Amsterdam 2015
Getting to a better design fast. User Checks is an agile way of usability testing with the focus on creating value. With User Checks the design accelerates to a higher level within a short period and relatively low cost and little resources. User Checks maximize the key element of usability testing: getting to empathy.
45 minute mini workshop for Ladies that UX Amsterdam meetup
Introducing User Checks, a method of agile usability testing + learning by doing, a live user check with the meetup.com site.
Yes U can! - User Checks; iterative usability testing with actionable resultsAnouschka Scholten
45 min Workshop @UXCamp Amsterdam 2018 about User Checks, a method for agile usability testing + getting to actionable results fast. Learning by doing: user check in 45 minutes
These set of slides will explain the importance of maintaining the user friendly features of any website. It contains statistics gathered from researches that have been already conducted and stats collected over the internet to quantitatively prove the importance of the aforementioned title.
I gave this presentation to my team within software development at Iatric Systems in February 2015.
I cover usability heuristics, applying these heuristics to user interfaces, content guidelines, designing for patient-facing applications, and the differences between designing for mobile vs. designing for desktop.
Lightweight and ‘guerrilla’ usability testing for digital humanities projectsMia
For the 2014 Digital Humanities Summer School at the University of Oxford DHOxSS. Usability doesn’t have to be a drag, and user testing doesn’t have to take months and a cast of thousands. Following the principle that ‘any user testing is better than no user testing’, lightweight usability is based on the idea that all you need to run useful tests with real people is a bit of planning and a couple of hours. In this session you will learn how to plan and run a lightweight usability test on paper prototypes or early versions of digital projects and get tips for recruiting and rewarding participants for 'guerrilla usability testing'. At the end of the workshop we will put it into practice by running a live usability test on a site suggested by the audience.
Understanding your user, what works; Persona, Empathy map, Customer profile?Anouschka Scholten
A fun 45 min workout (workshop and discussion) @UXcamp Amsterdam 2018: understanding your user via the techniques Persona, Empathy Map or Customer Profile, what works?
A Workshop on how ot teach UX design, based on a one day workshop model. We cover exercise design, how people learn, and how to design the day. Originally Given at General Assemb.ly 12/15/13
Please feel free to reuse with credit.
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable and commonly used user research tools. Yet sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:
● It's based on skills we think we have
● It's not taught or reflected on
People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills. Without good interviewing skills, insights may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggesting the wrong design or business responses, or they may miss the crucial nuance that points to innovative opportunities. Steve will share best practices for asking questions and listening and then lead a “safe” interviewing exercise.
Intro to User Journey Maps for Building Better Websites - Cornell Drupal Camp...Anthony D. Paul
You’ve asked the right questions and maybe you have some personas. There’s a heap of feature requests from your client and a whole lot of content to organize into a sitemap (IA) document and wireframes. However, something’s not sitting right and you wonder how the site fits into the bigger customer journey with the client’s brand, business, and products.
In this talk, I’ll show you how to get started with taking all of that subject matter expertise you’ve been collecting in your mind, and to convert it into one of several useful types of journey maps. I’ll share process, examples, context on how they fit into a larger project, and show how they help bring agreement among your client decision-makers.
• Understand the benefits of thinking through a user journey outside of your website.
• See the variety of types of journey maps and identify where and when to use them.
• Build and use journey maps to shape client conversations and audit decisions.
Lean UX Secrets: Engage & Delight in a Digital World (Digital Summit Atlanta)Sarah Weise
This talk on Lean UX was presented at Digital Summit Atlanta by Sarah Weise.
Program Description: Stop hearing crickets. Learn the secrets to amp up meetings with your team, your customers and your stakeholders. Boost creativity and participation with activities inspired by lean UX, lean startup, agile coaching, express usability, design thinking and more. We’ll break down the nuts & bolts of how to conduct successful working sessions in order to get the most from your team members during meetings, and uncover deep drivers to create a better experience. After years of experimenting with hundreds of hands-on activities for commercial and government clients, we’ll be sharing our top creative activities. We’ll show you what works to gather information about target audiences, business goals, website goals, top tasks, key differentiators, and personas. This session is specifically designed for you to take away tips and tricks that you can apply to your own meetings. That’s right: try this at home, folks.
Putting Personas to Work at IIBA ClevelandCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the Cleveland IIBA Chapter meeting on March 12, 2013.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
Aly Conteh of the British Library presents the library's work to make digitised historic newspapers accessible online. This presentation was delivered at the Europeana Newspapers Project workshop in Amsterdam.
Making a website easy for your visitors to navigate and use is essential for improving engagement. Understanding usability principles can inform your design and content decisions to make websites more user friendly and successful. Based on a review of publicly available usability research, we discuss what we know about users in terms of both big-picture concepts and nitty-gritty details. By Melissa Eggleston
Lightweight and ‘guerrilla’ usability testing for digital humanities projectsMia
For the 2014 Digital Humanities Summer School at the University of Oxford DHOxSS. Usability doesn’t have to be a drag, and user testing doesn’t have to take months and a cast of thousands. Following the principle that ‘any user testing is better than no user testing’, lightweight usability is based on the idea that all you need to run useful tests with real people is a bit of planning and a couple of hours. In this session you will learn how to plan and run a lightweight usability test on paper prototypes or early versions of digital projects and get tips for recruiting and rewarding participants for 'guerrilla usability testing'. At the end of the workshop we will put it into practice by running a live usability test on a site suggested by the audience.
Understanding your user, what works; Persona, Empathy map, Customer profile?Anouschka Scholten
A fun 45 min workout (workshop and discussion) @UXcamp Amsterdam 2018: understanding your user via the techniques Persona, Empathy Map or Customer Profile, what works?
A Workshop on how ot teach UX design, based on a one day workshop model. We cover exercise design, how people learn, and how to design the day. Originally Given at General Assemb.ly 12/15/13
Please feel free to reuse with credit.
Interviewing users is undeniably one of the most valuable and commonly used user research tools. Yet sometimes we forget that it's a skill we need to learn, because:
● It's based on skills we think we have
● It's not taught or reflected on
People tend to 'wing it' rather than develop their skills. Without good interviewing skills, insights may be inaccurate or reveal nothing new, suggesting the wrong design or business responses, or they may miss the crucial nuance that points to innovative opportunities. Steve will share best practices for asking questions and listening and then lead a “safe” interviewing exercise.
Intro to User Journey Maps for Building Better Websites - Cornell Drupal Camp...Anthony D. Paul
You’ve asked the right questions and maybe you have some personas. There’s a heap of feature requests from your client and a whole lot of content to organize into a sitemap (IA) document and wireframes. However, something’s not sitting right and you wonder how the site fits into the bigger customer journey with the client’s brand, business, and products.
In this talk, I’ll show you how to get started with taking all of that subject matter expertise you’ve been collecting in your mind, and to convert it into one of several useful types of journey maps. I’ll share process, examples, context on how they fit into a larger project, and show how they help bring agreement among your client decision-makers.
• Understand the benefits of thinking through a user journey outside of your website.
• See the variety of types of journey maps and identify where and when to use them.
• Build and use journey maps to shape client conversations and audit decisions.
Lean UX Secrets: Engage & Delight in a Digital World (Digital Summit Atlanta)Sarah Weise
This talk on Lean UX was presented at Digital Summit Atlanta by Sarah Weise.
Program Description: Stop hearing crickets. Learn the secrets to amp up meetings with your team, your customers and your stakeholders. Boost creativity and participation with activities inspired by lean UX, lean startup, agile coaching, express usability, design thinking and more. We’ll break down the nuts & bolts of how to conduct successful working sessions in order to get the most from your team members during meetings, and uncover deep drivers to create a better experience. After years of experimenting with hundreds of hands-on activities for commercial and government clients, we’ll be sharing our top creative activities. We’ll show you what works to gather information about target audiences, business goals, website goals, top tasks, key differentiators, and personas. This session is specifically designed for you to take away tips and tricks that you can apply to your own meetings. That’s right: try this at home, folks.
Putting Personas to Work at IIBA ClevelandCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the Cleveland IIBA Chapter meeting on March 12, 2013.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
Aly Conteh of the British Library presents the library's work to make digitised historic newspapers accessible online. This presentation was delivered at the Europeana Newspapers Project workshop in Amsterdam.
Making a website easy for your visitors to navigate and use is essential for improving engagement. Understanding usability principles can inform your design and content decisions to make websites more user friendly and successful. Based on a review of publicly available usability research, we discuss what we know about users in terms of both big-picture concepts and nitty-gritty details. By Melissa Eggleston
Julie Grundy gives an overview of user experience Design, why it's important, guiding principles, UX research overview, and tactics used by UX professionals. November 2015.
What is Lean UX? Come get introduced to the topic of Lean UX and learn the fundamentals of this approach, and how it is revolutionizing the field of UX with UserTesting. Discover how constant iterating through cycles and learning from each cycle can create products which can overcome business challenges and meet customer needs, while saving big bucks, resources, and time.
We will cover the basic principles of Lean UX, and how UserTesting fits into this model of research.
Designing to save lives: Government technical documentation Laurian Vega
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Web usability is about making a website easy to use and this presentation is from our workshop on the topic based on Steve Krug's book don't make me think.
Introduction to usability and usability testing as a discipline, followed by how to do guerilla usability testing. Presented at Duke Tech Expo April 13, 2018 with co-author Lauren Hirsh, with content from a prior collaborative presentation of hers.
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The UXD team came up with a presentation, covering some of the point we have in our day to day work. Information architects, designers and front-end participated to build up this doc in order to practice and be more familiar with UCD process, agile project management, UX research and so on.
Have a look on the presentation and help us to build it up.
Are you looking to gather insights from your potential customers? When it comes to your prospects, do you really know what they want? Many startup teams tell us they are missing the key information they need to get into their users' mind. Without this information, the products often fall short of delighting users.
There are those that believe that user research and usability testing must be a complex and scientific process that takes lots of time, money, and resources. However, in the real world, most startups don't have the luxury to spend weeks or months on their user research. That's where guerrilla research techniques come into play.
This was a 4-hour workshop that was given at World Usability Day Colombia. #wudco14
Summary:
Now more than ever is the survival of the easiest. Whether the product is a website or a handheld device, success depends largely on how easy it is to use. Usability testing is one of the most effective for creating an intuitive methods. By observing actual people when they use the product, you can get valuable insights if your design is easy to use. Attendees will learn how to conduct a usability test with end users of a product. This workshop is highly interactive and includes several practical exercises to give participants practical experience.
You will learn:
- How to plan a usability testing study
- How to define the goals and objectives
- Explore options (unmoderated usability testing vs. unmoderated & remote vs. in-person)
- How to recruit the right participants
- How to create tasks (Interview-based vs. predefined tasks)
- How to moderate a usability test
- How to analyze and report the results
Newbie UX: Something I learned about UX (Business vs Design)Soon-Aik Chiew
Sharing some tips to those who are new to UX and wish to learn more about UX. The findings and sharing are based on my past learning mistakes, experience and observations.
http://blog.netizentesting.com/newbie-ux-something-learned-user-experience/
I'm currently drafting a material on Startup (Digital) Marketing: Growth Hacking Thru UX. Stay Tuned.
To read more articles, visit: blog.NetizenTesting.com
Basic introduction to (mainly Nielsen) usability principles for a non UX audience. Content oriented with examples of success stories (both public sector complex sites) and their impact on objectives.
In my presentation we will talk about what is User Experience (UX) and why it is important nowadays.
Also we will briefly talk about Usability of a product and how to contact some easy Usability tests.
Finally we will learn the 10 Heuristics of Nielsen and revers-engineer our way back to designing thoughtful User Interfaces (UI) based on those rules of thumb.
Disclaimer: I am not a UX researcher or expert! I am a UX enthusiast. I am trying to study and learn as much as I can about UX (workshop, seminars, uni classes, articles etc.) and all I am trying to de here is to make people understand the importance of it, through what I have learned so far.
Similar to Principles of Usability Testing For Historic Newspapers (20)
The Presentation of Hans-Jörg Lieder, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, at the BnF Information Day for Europeana Newspapers (November 2014).
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
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Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
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Cyber risk predictions
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Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
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Learn about:
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• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
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Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
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Principles of Usability Testing For Historic Newspapers
1. Channa Veldhuijsen – Specialist UsabilityTesting, National Library of The Netherlands
Europeana Newspapers Workshop - September 16, 2013.
Principles of Usability Testing for Historic
Newspapers
2. What is usability?
Usability means…
…making sure something works well, and that a person of average ability or
experience can use it for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly
frustrated.
- Steve Krug
3. Usability lessons to keep in mind
• Don’t Make Me Think
As a rule, people don’t like to puzzle over how to do things. Web applications
should explain themselves. Don’t make your website unnecessarily
complicated; if users have to think too much, you’ll lose them.
• Don’t waste my time
Much of people’s web use is motivated by the desire to save time. So make
important features / content stand out or users will get frustrated.
• No Time for Small Talk
Most users don’t have time for small talk; they want to get right to the beef. So
get rid of irrelevant information on your website.
4. • We’re creatures of habit
If people find something that works, they usually stick to it. They’ll use a better
way if they stumble across one, but they seldom look for one. So first
impression is important!
• Take me back!
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked
"emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state or they’ll use the back button.
The back button is the most-used feature of web browsers (!), so make sure it
works on your website.
• Make it easy to go home
Having a home button in sight at all times offers reassurance to users that no
matter how lost they may get, they can always start over.
Usability lessons to keep in mind
5. • Don’t lose search
Some people (search-dominant users and there are a lot of them among library
), will almost always look for a search box as they enter a site, so make sure
they can find it.
• Be consistent
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions
mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
• What’s wrong?!
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely
indicating the problem and constructively suggesting a solution.
• Help me!
Even though your website should be easy to use, some people may still get lost.
Help them along with a FAQ and/or tutorials.
Usability lessons to keep in mind
6. What is usability testing?
Watching people try to use what you’re creating/designing/building (or
something you’ve already created/designed/built), with the intention of (a)
making it easier for people to use or (b) proving that it is easy to use.
- Steve Krug
The aim is to observe people using the product to discover errors and areas
of improvement.
- Wikipedia
7. Why should you do it?
• All websites have problems and most problems are easy to find… if
you try.
You probably won’t notice (some of the) usability problems on your
website, because you know how the site works. Most of your users,
on the other hand, don’t know the website and that makes all the
difference.
• If you don’t try, your users will tell you about these problems once
you have launched the website.
It is much easier to fix problems in the early stages of a project and
it’s certainly better for your reputation.
8. • Watching users makes you a better designer; it makes you smarter
about how people use things and how things can be designed for use.
Despite all the talk about “user-centered design” and “user experience”,
relatively few designers/developers/stakeholders/etc have actually
spent any time watching how people use websites. As a result, people
end up designing for their abstract idea of users, based for the most
part on themselves.
Why should you do it?
9. If it’s so valuable, why isn’t it a standard part of every web project?
Lack of time;
most web
projects have
tight
schedules.
Most people
don’t have any
experience with
usability testing,
so they just don’t
know how
valuable it is.
Reluctance to
show work before it
is finished.
The idea that web
analytics give more
than enough insight
on what people are
doing on the
website.
10. How does it work? – Different types of testing
• Hallway testing:
Bring in a few random people to test the website. The name of the
technique refers to the fact that the testers should be random people who
pass by in the hallway and not an in-house, trained group of testers.
• Remote Usability Testing:
Instead of bringing the users to you, you go to them – electronically, via
web tools and by talking on the phone. Easier recruiting (anybody with an
internet connection), no travel required, easier scheduling, good results.
So why not do all tests remotely?
Good results, but being right next to the participant gives even
better results. You do lose something not being in the same
room as the participant. Compare it to talking face to face vs.
talking on the phone. It works, but you do spend more time
clarifying things.
11. • A/B testing:
Two versions of (part of) the website (A and B) are compared. Version A
might be the currently used version, while version B is modified in some
respect. Which one do users prefer?
• Expert review:
This method relies on bringing in experts with experience in the field
(possibly from companies that specialize in usability testing) to evaluate the
usability of a product.
How does it work? – Different types of testing
12. How does it work? – Rounding up test participants
Find users via newsletters,
social media, feedback
forms, the reading rooms,
customer panels, etc.
Try to find users
who reflect your
target audience, but
don’t get hung up
about it.
The more users you
watch, the fewer
new problems you’ll
see. Three to eight
users per test is
enough (depending
on the scale of the
test).
Ask people who
are not (yet)
familiar with the
project/website.
13. How does it work? – What you should test
Decide what to test, based on:
•The things that people must be able to do in order to make your website a
success.
(for instance; being able to open digital image of historic newspaper)
•The things that you suspect people are going to have trouble with; that
may confuse people.
(features that have caused debate within the design team)
•The things that your other research suggest may not be easy to use.
(based on the questions costumer support gets, web analytics, etc)
14. How does it work? – Attitude
• Stay neutral
Hide your personal agenda. You don’t want to influence the participants
or your testing will lose its credibility. And never criticise the participant.
Keep in mind that whatever problems the participant encounters, it is
your website that is causing these problems, not the participant.
• Keep your promises
Don’t ask people to test
your website if you are not
going to be using their
feedback. Make sure the
test results are integrated
into future developments
of the website.
15. How does it work? – Roles
Moderator:
Right next to the
participant.
Tells participants what
to do, makes them feel
comfortable, gets
them to verbalize their
thoughts, keeps them
talking.
Does not give his/her
own opnion about the
website and does not
answer questions; the
participants have to
figure it out on their
own.
Observer:
In another room, but
able to follow
everything the
participant does.
Takes notes.
Particulary interested
in moments when
the participant gets
confused or
frustrated.
16. Conclusions and debriefing
Make a list of the
most serious usability
problems that the
participants
encountered.
To determine to most
important problems,
ask yourself:
•Will a lot of people
experience this
problem?
•Will it cause a serious
problem or just an
inconvenience? Discuss the list with (your fellow) developers and
decide which problems you are going to fix first.
17. Keep the before mentioned usability lessons in mind! And…
•Balance is everything
Make sure the interface keeps a good balance between text, image and
empty space:
Try to avoid long texts; most people do not take the time to read
properly and a lot of text will scare them away. If you have to use a
lot of text: please use alinea’s, and subheadings.
Images and icons make your website visually attractive. Please
don’t forget to use alt texts for images and icons.
Empty space creates overview; most people don’t have the patience
to scan the whole website to find what they are looking for.
•Follow web standards; they exist for a reason.
For instance; people expect to go to the top right corner to log out. Don’t
confuse or frustrate users by putting the log out button somewhere else.
Usability: historic newspapers
18. • Don’t hide it
If the historic newspaper site is part of another website, make sure users immediately
know where to look for the newspaper section.
• Let them browse!
Users want to know what kind of content they can expect on your website (titles, years,
more information about each title, etc) and they want to be able to browse through it.
• First things first
Ask yourself; what is the main feature on this page? Make sure the user’s attention is
immediately drawn to it (in this case; search engine, digital image of newspaper).
• Open access is preferred
If you do ask users to pay, I am sure you’ll have your reasons for it. So please explain
them to your users.
• Always enable users to give feedback on the website.
It satisfies users to be able to ask questions or leave suggestions/complaints and it will
give you a lot of useful information about the usability issues on your website.
Usability: historic newspapers
19. Recommendations
Books
•“Don’t Make Me Think” - Steve Krug
•“Rocket Surgery Made Easy” - Steve Krug
•“Handbook of Usability Testing” - Jeffrey Rubin
& Dana Chisnell
•“A Practical Guide to Usability Testing”- Joseph
Dumas & Janice Redish
•“Usability Testing Essentials: Ready, Set...Test!”
- Carol Barnum
20. Recommendations
Websites
•http://www.sensible.com/
Steve Krug’s website; full of useful information on usabilty testing,
including chapters from his books, video’s, etc
•http://www.nngroup.com/people/jakob-nielsen/
Jakob Nielsen’s website; lots of useful articles on web usability, user
testing, writing for the web, etc.
•http://www.usefulusability.com/24-usability-testing-tools/
List of 24 usability testing tools
Steve Krug is a renowned usability expert. He wrote two influential books about it (see recommendations later on). I found this image online. It gives a good impression of the things people will say when a website or product is usabilityfriendly.
Combination of lessons by Steve Krug, Jakob Nielsen (usability experts) and my own experience from usability testing.
Creatures of habit; first impression is very important, because people rarely look for other ways to use your website.
Web analytics are certainly very valuable, but they show you what people do and not why they do it. Usability testing does both.
Hallway testing: you can find these people anywhere; literally in the hallway / reading rooms or through social media, newsletters and the like. The idea is that you contact them and they’ll come to you to do the testing.
A/B tetsing: could be the current website (version A) and a new design (version B) or two different options of a new feature. Expert review: valuable when you are working on a big project.
Not familiar with the project/website: participants need a to be as unbiased as humanly possibly. You do not necessarily need users from your target group. Many of the most serious usability problems have nothing to do with domain knowledge, they’re related to things like navigation, page lay-out and so on; problems that almost anybody will encounter. Number of users: depends on the scale of the test (small test is less testers) and it also depends on who you are talking to. Krug says three testers per test is enough, Nielsen says five… Most people agree that no matter how big your usability test is, eight participants is enough to discover the vast majority of usability problems on the webiste. If you’ll bring in more than eight people, it is very unlikely that the ninth or tenth tester will tell you things you do not already know by then. Steve Krug: three users is enough Jakob Nielsen: five users is enough.
Image “No! That’s not how you’re supposed to use it!”: You may think it, but you should never say say it out loud!
Some people use the term “facillitator” instead of “moderator”. The participant is the person in the middle; he/she is in the room with the moderator/facillitator.
Determine the most important problems: if one participant finds a serious usability issue, you should include it, even if he/she is the only person who found it.
Usability lessons: slide 3-5 Avoid long texts: especially on the homepage.
Don’t hide it: as I’ve said before; most users are impatient. If they have to think too much, you’ll lose them.
These are just a few examples. There are other good books out there. If you’re new to usability testing, the books by Krug are probably the best ones to start with. They’re easy to read and very hands-on.
Like Steve Krug, Jakob Nielsen is a renowned usability expert. I have not included any of his books (last slide), because the ones on usability testing are a little outdated, in my opnion, but his website is very useful.