The document describes plans for a controlled usability study of a new movie ticket purchasing application. Small groups of testers from different age groups will be asked to complete set tasks in a black box testing method where they can use the app but not see its internal workings. This will allow evaluation of the design's usability and performance under different conditions to identify areas for improvement before public release. A controlled study is preferable to an open field study for debugging purposes.

1. CEN4722 – Assignment 11 – Product Development Lifecycle - Part 4 of 5
Assignment 11 - Page 495
Freddy Agredo

2. CEN4722 – Assignment 11
Instructions
Assignment 11 - Page 495
Read through the assignment. You are responding to Sections a, e, and f. Please
use this template. You may add slides to this presentation and include graphics and
pictures, but please do not delete any of the slides.
Check out the Illustrations tab including the shapes & smart art to assist you.
You will be graded on this assignment and it will also be 1/5 of your final project grade.

3. CEN4722 – Assignment 11a - Standard Task
Buy 2 consecutive seats for a “Star Wars” Movie on December 18, 2015
at the Sheridan Mall at night
1. Register and sign up
2. Login
3. Enter city or select GPS location
4. Pick “Movie” in the “Events” section
5. Input “Star Wars” on the search area then hit “Enter” or swipe across image
posters and click on image
6. Choose to read “Reviews and Ratings” and “Watch Trailer” or skip to “Selection
Process”

4. CEN4722 – Assignment 11a - Standard Task
Buy 2 consecutive seats for a “Star Wars” Movie on December 18, 2015
at the Sheridan Mall at night
7. Select “Day”
8. Select “Theatre” to watch movie using current location
or pick another place by city name or zip code
9. Select “Show Times”
10. Select “Ticket Types”
11. Select “Quantity”
12. Select “Seat Availability” or pick another “Ticket Type”

5. CEN4722 – Assignment 11a - Standard Task
Buy 2 consecutive seats for a “Star Wars” Movie on December 18, 2015
at the Sheridan Mall at night
13. Select pre-buying options like “Valet Parking”, “Refreshments”,
“Snack Combos”, “Merchandising” or skip
14. Enter “Promotion Code” if available
15. Click on “Buy Now”
16. Enter “Preferred Method of Payment”
17. Select “Delivery Method” by “E-Ticket”, “Pick up at Concierge” or “Mail”
18. Set up “Reminder” for movie presentation or close the application

6. CEN4722 – Assignment 11 e
Plans for a controlled usability or field study.
The best method to validate our code and verify the performance of this new
software platform is using the Black Box System in a safe, controlled
environment.
Through this method, the internal workings of the application being tested are
not known by the user, so the process helps the tester to focus only on the
input requirements and the output expected.
Also, conditions can be modified to measure the time used to perform the
task by the user and to test the velocity of the processing by the application
using different carriers and internet download speeds.(Cont.)

7. CEN4722 – Assignment 11 e (Cont.)
Plans for a controlled usability or field study.
Using small groups of testers separated by age groups identified as Young,
Adult, and Seniors, it is useful to measure if the app can be easily
understood and usable by the different potential customers when they want
to pick and buy a ticket or to reserve a seat in an actual or future event.
The method of Black Box allows the research team to evaluate the design
and to take into consideration the annotations of the testers to search
movies and the integration with other applications in all operational systems.
It is also useful to know what other applications they use for the same
purpose and what do they like about it.

8. CEN4722 – Assignment 11 f
Compare controlled study vs. field study
As explained in the previous slide an open field study is a method not
recommended to test the application. This app is built by a series of small
chunks of information, that required a detailed analysis of controlled
conditions to verify the proper functioning of the code and debug it from
problems with accuracy, to avoid the cost overrun in developers checking
thousand of programming lines.
An open field study, in this case, could provide inaccurate and false
information about the interaction of the tester with the application. For those
reasons, only the benefits and problems of the controlled method selected
are described on the following slide.

9. CEN4722 – Assignment 11 f
Compare controlled study vs. field study
Benefits
 Delivers immediate results
 Code problems can be debugged locally
without using a web server
 A trial version of the app can be
downloaded and removed automatically
on the tester’s device
 It analyzes usability of app using
checklist to ensure every step meets the
criteria for performance
 Same task can be requested to different
groups then collect the data on how
quickly they complete the task and their
comments for suggestions or
improvement
 Programming language is not required
Problems
 No records can be saved until all entries
are done
 Users can lie about their level of
competence on applications and affect
the final results
 Subjects could not be familiar with buying
online or never used a reservation
system
 No deep analysis of software because
testers have limited knowledge of system
or how it works
 Restricted method since only a few
possible scenarios can be tested
 Tester only replicates normal user flow

10. Works Cited:
"Black Box Testing." Software Testing Fundamentals. STF, 19 Dec. 2010.
Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/black-
box-testing/>.
Preece, Jenny, Yvonne Rogers, and Helen Sharp. "Chapter 14: Evaluation
Studies: From Controlled to Natural Settings." Interaction Design:
Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. Fourth ed. Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons, 2005. 568. Print.
"Types of Software Testing." Software Testing Help. 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 4
Dec. 2015. <http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/types-of-software-
testing/>.