LEARNING FROM YOUR PATRONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO USER RESEARCH Babi - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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LEARNING FROM YOUR PATRONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO USER RESEARCH Babi - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

May 08, 2023 285 likes •626 views

LEARNING FROM YOUR PATRONS: AN INTRODUCTION TO USER RESEARCH Babi Hammond, Digital Experience Consultant, CO State Library bhammond@coloradovirtuallibrary.org CSL In Session Webinar, 18 March 2017 SOME KINDS OF USER RESEARCH Surveys

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AN INTRODUCTION TO USER RESEARCH

LEARNING FROM YOUR PATRONS:

Babi Hammond, Digital Experience Consultant, CO State Library bhammond@coloradovirtuallibrary.org CSL In Session Webinar, 18 March 2017

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SOME KINDS OF USER RESEARCH

  • Surveys
  • Card sorting
  • Focus groups
  • Interviews
  • Personas
  • Suggestion boxes
  • Web analytics
  • Task analysis
  • Usability testing
  • Heuristic evaluations
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FOCUS FOR TODAY:

  • Usability testing
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USABILITY TESTING: THE BASICS

  • Recruit representative users
  • Watch them do key tasks
  • Ask them to “think out loud”
  • See where they run into problems
  • Fix those problems
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“There’s no trick to it. It’s just a simple trick!”

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A QUICK DEMONSTRATION

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ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION

Steve Krug Usability Demo: https://youtu.be/QckIzHC99Xc

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USABILITY TESTING: THE PROCESS

  • 1. Planning the evaluation
  • 2. Recruiting participants
  • 3. Running the evaluation
  • 4. Evaluating the results
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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

What should you test?

[ chat: what kinds of things would you like to test at your library?]

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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

What should you test?

  • Critical systems
  • Known or suspected problems
  • Things you can probably fix (unless

they are critical)

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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

Specific tasks & good scenarios

  • What patrons might really do
  • Plausible scenarios
  • Specific tasks but generic language
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Question: How easy is it for patrons to use 
 the e-resources list? Task: Find a database on a 
 particular subject.

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Q: How easy is it to use the e-resources list? T: Find a database on a particular subject.

Scenario:

You would like to find a database on a particular subject. Access the e-resources list, and choose a database for newspapers.

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Q: How easy is it to use the e-resources list? T: Find a database on a particular subject.

Scenario:

You are looking for recent news stories about

  • Colorado. Starting from the library homepage,

find a database for recent newspaper articles.

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Q: How easy is it to use the e-resources list? T: Find a database on a particular subject.

Scenario:

You are looking for recent newspaper articles about Colorado. Starting from the library homepage, find a resource relevant to your search.

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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

More Advice on Tasks

Amy Schade, “Write Better Qualitative Usability Tasks: Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid,” Nielsen Norman Group, 9 April 2017 https://www.nngroup.com/articles/better-usability-tasks/

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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

Technology & Setting

  • Match real-world setting
  • But private and quiet if possible
  • Record the session if possible
  • Observers, or just you?
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PLANNING THE EVALUATION

Pilot Test the Session

  • Run the full test with someone
  • Make sure your tasks make sense
  • Test the equipment and recording
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RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

Who should you recruit?

  • Try to get people who represent

your users

  • If you can’t get them, get anyone

you can

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RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

Who should you recruit?

[ please chat about who you’d recruit and how ]

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RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

How to recruit participants

  • Flyers, posters, friends
  • Offer a reasonable incentive
  • Consider remote testing if needed
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RUNNING THE EVALUATIONS

Be a good facilitator

  • Explain what will happen in the

session

  • Emphasize that you’re testing the

website, not the participant

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RUNNING THE EVALUATIONS

Be a good facilitator

  • Be friendly, but not too helpful
  • Keep them talking
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Savage Chickens, by Doug Savage http://www.savagechickens.com/2005/11/chicken-therapy.html

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RUNNING THE EVALUATIONS

Be a good facilitator

  • Try to keep the session on track
  • Try to leave time for follow-up

questions

  • End the session on time
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EVALUATING THE RESULTS

Review and record

  • Review your notes and the

recordings

  • Look for patterns, things more than
  • ne participant did or said
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EVALUATING THE RESULTS

Metrics

[ chat about possible metrics ]

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EVALUATING THE RESULTS

Metrics

  • Basic metric is success or failure at

completing the tasks

  • Usually results are qualitative, so

really more your judgement

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FIXING THE PROBLEMS YOU FOUND

How to fix problems

  • Prioritize; fix critical problems first
  • “Tweak, don’t redesign”
  • Patch problems you can’t fix
  • Test the fixes with another study
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SOURCES FOR MORE INFO

Steve Krug’s books

His company’s website: http://sensible.com/ His amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Krug/e/B001KHCFUU/

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SOURCES FOR MORE INFO

Free info online

  • Usability.gov 


(http://www.usability.gov/)

  • Nielsen-Norman Group 


(https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

  • Usability Body of Knowledge 


(http://www.usabilitybok.org/usability-testing)

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SOURCES FOR MORE INFO

Free help from the State Library

Babi Hammond


Digital Experience Consultant

hammond_b@cde.state.co.us

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SO…. WHAT NEXT?

  • What kinds of usability tests do want to try?
  • Anything you’d like to know more about?

Babi Hammond


Digital Experience Consultant hammond_b@cde.state.co.us