Portfolio
Usability
Testing
Observing users interacting with an application is the key to understanding their needs, wants, frustrations and desires. This clip, created using TechSmith Morae and Camtasia, has been edited down from about 5 hours of testing and shows several users testing a web portal created for ING Advisors Network. I encourage users to think out loud as they go through the test; in other words to share verbally what they are thinking as they interact with the application. This clip gives you an example of the results from this “thinking aloud” approach to usability testing.
Usability Testing Video Clip (2:35)
To help “set the stage”, engage the testers and gather additional quantitative and qualitative data, each of the participants are given a Usability Test Packet that contains the following sections:
- Introduction
- Consent Form
- Demographic Questions
- Thinking Out Loud Explanation
- Test Scenarios and Tasks
- Task Feedback Questions
- Post-Test Questionnaire
- Debriefing Notes Section
The following is the Usability Test Package used for the testing shown in the video.
At the completion of the test, a Usability Test Report is created. This report summarizes the findings of the test including the severity of the issues uncovered. It is not a document which provides specific recommendations on addressing any issues uncovered but simply a clear explanation of what worked and what didn’t. Here’s the report for this test.
In my experience, this report is the most important content I create from usability testing. The video is useful for identifying issues I might have missed or confirming observations I’ve made, but it is rarely watched by anyone else. Not because they can’t, but people are busy and don’t have the time to sit through 5, 10 or 20 hours of usability testing video. I generally make 5-10 minute long “highlight” reels that support some of the main points in the Usability Report.
Information Architecture
Layout and design are iterative processes. Whether you are working with external users (preferable), internal team members (collaboration is always good), or by yourself (more often than not) you’ll need to go over your original ideas a number of times. If possible you’ll want to test each iteration with your target users, if that’s not possible, then you’ll at minimum need to run them by your peers. There’s nothing like a set of fresh eyes to look at the problem. The following pages show an abbreviated example of how I went about designing information architecture for some new functionality in ING’s web application ING SmartWorks.
Information Architecture Podcast (28:54)
Training
E-Learning/Online Video
- Getting started with tables in Word 2007 (Techsmith Camtasia)
- Navigating in a table (Techsmith Camtasia)
- Basic table formatting (Techsmith Camtasia)
- Customizing the look of your table (Techsmith Camtasia)
- SyncBackSE Demo (Adobe Captivate)
Technical Writing
Help/Support Content
