September 2, 2010 Archives

A usability testing report is part of your Unit 1 scratch portfolio (due 09 Sep).

Usability testing means sitting and watching (with your eyes open and your mouth shut) while people try to use a document or project that you are developing. If your volunteers can't work the controls, or they ignore the button that's supposed to take them to the cool 3D rotating graphics that you worked for weeks to perfect, that's a sign that your project needs work. (See "Usability Testing: What Is It?")

Usability testing is not opinion-gathering.  Rather than showing your project to a volunteer and asking, "What do you think?", a full usability test will objectively measure some aspect of the user's performance. (How long did it take them to find the help screen? What part of the game were they playing when they gave up? How many mistakes did they make when trying to follow your instructions?)  Your goal is to improve your project, so that when you test it again, they find the help screen faster, they play the game longer, or they make fewer mistakes. (See "Usability Testing: 8 Quick Tips")

A usability report quantifies the results of your usability test, demonstrating improvement. It's written in the form of a professional report. (It's not a reflective essay or a personal narrative, which might focus on your personal struggle to reach your goal. Rather, a technical report puts the answers up front, and explains them later.) (See "Short Reports: How To Write Routine Technical Documents.")

Continue coding, but also think about how you will conduct a usability test on your project. (Is there enough for your user to do, to comprehend, to interpret?)

You have been working with Scratch for a few days. What do you think so far?