[IxDA Discuss] frustation meter

[Katie Albers]

Gee, I just love quantifying qualities </irony> But, in this case, 
have you considered adapting the medical Wong-Baker visual "pain" 
scale? <there's a pretty good article on it at 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_scale>

there's a 10 point measurement at 
<http://www.anes.ucla.edu/pain/FacesScale.jpg>

In any case, I think that's as good a place to start as any. I've 
used versions of it -- very informally -- when doing user testing for 
years.

But, in any case, that's the closest thing I've ever seen to a 
measurement of frustration.

One of the things that I think is most important is to remember that 
once you've settled on definitions of the various levels of 
frustration, the user is the *only* acceptable source for the 
measurement. You can't watch them and guess, you have to let them 
rate it themselves. I find that the best way to do this is to put 
together a rating pop-up that you can trigger. Tell the user it's 
random. Then when you observe apparent frustration, you can trigger 
the user to measure it. It lessens the effect of the user trying to 
please the tester.

In any case, good luck.

Katie

At 11:49 AM +1100 11/2/07, Juan Ruiz wrote:
>I was wondering if any of you has had experience using a tool to
>quantify the frustration of the user while using an interface (in our
>case a web application or website). This tool is to be used during
>usability testing, of course.
>
>Do  you have any links to research, products and samples?
>
>Thanks!
>-Juan

-- 

----------------
Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com