[IxDA Discuss] Technology for User Research

[Barbara Ballard]

On 9/5/06, mark Schraad <mschraad at mac.com> wrote:
>
> Maybe I am out of the mainstream, but usability seems to be cropping up as a common denominator for anything user centered. Traditionally, usability testing is something that the human factors of HCI folks had done after the product was finished. It has always seamed too late.

>
> User experience or user interface research, on the otherhand is proactive. It occurs prior and during the problem definition. It also occurs during the design process in small incremental stages. Are we all using this word "usability" as a catch all for everything user centered? I know my clients are - which causes me to stop and ask for clarification just to make sure we are speaking the same language.



"Usability testing" can be of several varieties.  If the testing
happens at the end of the product development cycle, then it is
frequently used for benchmarking and finding issues to fix with the
next release.  That's when you get some 20+ participants and shoot for
statistical validity.

Prototype usability testing is done much earlier in the cycle, on
prototypes or partially developed code. The question you are answering
here is "is there a problem with the design?"  This is where you only
need some 4 participants because if any of them have a problem, then a
portion of the population has the problem and you should perhaps fix
it.

Wizard of Oz usability testing is done earlier still, and can be done
either with paper prototypes or with a package like DENIM.  This can
be done before the development team is even hired.  If you use DENIM,
you can use Peter's remote usability testing.

Usability testing is a mechanism for testing a design's usability and
other attributes with users (you just have to ask the right
questions).

User research is a collection of techniques for understanding users.

-- 
Barbara Ballard
barbara at littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-550-3650