16. 16
Influencing design
decisions
Give up control (you don’t have it, anyway)
Get the team to value data over gut
Research by lots of amateurs produces better
results
Otherwise, you’ll burn out
Coach and advise instead
Work on more interesting, harder questions
19. 19
Tasks: Seeing through the users’ eyes
Help each team member think of a user scenario
they care about
Act out the scenario as the user
20. 20
App: Church social network
✤ Roles:
✤ Senior Pastor
✤ Social Networking Pastor
✤ Volunteer
✤ Lay Leader
✤ Member
✤ First time visitor
✤ Administrative Assistant
21. 21
✤ App:
Organizing students to help homebound people
vote
✤ User roles:
✤ Student
✤ Voter
✤ Organizer
✤ Trainer
✤ Scheduler
25. 25
Moderating, Impartial, unbiased
observing
not training No teaching!
Listen and watch
Ask open-ended
questions: Why?
How? What?
Correct and train at
the end
26. 26
Who should moderate?
Quick learner Develops rapport, Excellent memory Good listener
empathetic
27. 27
Flight attendant
Ensuring the safety and comfort of the participant
Joan Dorsey, American Airlines: http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/aviation-historytrivia/
Sportscaster
Echoing with play-by-play
Maximizing flow of information to observers
John Madden, http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/28/television-sports-madden-biz-sports-cx_lh_0128broadcasters_slide_3.html?
thisSpeed=15000
Scientist
Planning, managing data, producing reports
Marie Curie, Smithsonian Institution http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?t=5&id=3523&q=SIL14-C6-05
29. 29
What to look for Hesitating
Comments
Questions
Body language
Behaviors
30. 30
Technique
Think aloud - ask: Review at end - ask:
“Tell me what you’re “Walk me through what you
doing” did”
“Tell me what you’re “How’d that go?” Use the
thinking” ballot as a guide for the
discussion
“What was confusing or
frustrating?”
32. 32
Mid-session reminders
“You are not being Meanwhile, you track time and
tested” tasks remaining in the session
“That’s useful Don’t be afraid to move on if
feedback, thank something is taking too long
you”
Decide ahead what is low priority
“Please tell me what or optional
you’re thinking”
33. 33
Narration
Don’t be afraid to Examples:
interact “I see you just clicked on the Zit button.”
Say what you are “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Would you say
observing - don’t that again?”
interpret “That really, really stinks? Could you say
what about it stinks?”
34. 34
Maximizing data
✤ If the participant says “hmmm” or “oops” or “I wonder...”
Say: “What questions do you have right now?”
✤ If the participant is silent for 10 - 20 seconds (count!)
Say: “What are you thinking?”
✤ If the participant stops because she thinks she’s done or
she’s stuck
- Summarize what you saw her do
- Ask what she will do next
35. 35
Analysis: Structured discussion
Tell stories
KJ - to set priorities
Guess the reason - to exercise inference-making
Observation-inference-opinion-theory
36. 36
KJ Analysis
reach consensus from subjective data
similar to affinity diagramming
invented by Jiro Kawakita
objective, quick
8 simple steps
37. 37
1. Focus
question
What needs to be fixed in Product
X to improve the user experience?
(observations, data)
What obstacles do teams face in
implementing UE practices?
(opinion)
38. 38
2. Organize the
group
Call together everyone concerned
For user research, only those who
observed
Typically takes an hour
39. 39
3. Put opinions
or data on notes
For a usability test, ask for
observations
(not inferences, not opinion)
No discussion
40. 40
4. Put notes on
a wall
Random
Read others’
Add items
No discussion
41. 41
5. Group
similar items
In another part of the room
Start with 2 items that seem like
they belong together
Place them together, one below the
other
Move all stickies
Review and move among groups
Every item in a group
No discussion
42. 42
6. Name each
group
Use a different color
Each person gives each group a
name
Names must be noun clusters
Split groups
Join groups
Everyone must give every group a
name
No discussion
43. 43
7. Vote for the most
important groups
Democratic sharing of opinions
Independent of influence or
coercion
Each person writes their top 3
Rank the choices from most to
least important
Record votes on the group sticky
No discussion
44. 44
8. Rank the
groups
Pull notes with votes
Order by the number of votes
Read off the groups
Discuss combining groups
Agreement must be unanimous
Add combined groups’ votes
together
Stop at 3-5 clear top priorities
49. 49
Opinions
Review the inferences
What are the causes?
How likely is this inference to be the
cause?
How often did the observation happen?
Are there any patterns in what kinds of
users had issues?
50. 50
Direction
What’s the evidence for a design change?
What does the strength of the cause
suggest about a solution?
Test theories
51. 51
Resistance from the team
I don’t have time
It’s not my job
I don’t know how
What if I screw up
53. 53
Resistance from the team
Exchange time in meetings for time with users
It will make you better at your job
I’ll help you learn
You won’t; it doesn’t matter
54. 54
Stop pouting.
Yep, you’re qualified and they aren’t.
Go peddle your fish.
Haven’t you wanted more visibility?
55. 55
Improving the Gut
A lot of sloppy data is better than a little excellent
data
Trust your team to be delegated to
Shift your mindset from your butt to their Gut
56. 56
-+ Desktop
X?
Users
Data
?
Y?
U Recommendations
D
Direction
This?
59. 59
Where to learn more
Dana’s blog: http://
usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/
Download templates, examples, and
links to other resources from
www.wiley.com/go/usabilitytesting