[ATTW-L] usability online?

Thu Sep 24 13:19:10 UTC 2020

Hi all,

Remote usability studies have been a key tool in UX for many years. Our industry colleagues are also grappling with a full shift to remote at the moment and there are many interesting articles, stories,  and how to's out there.

In our program, one of our instructors had success last Spring having students use usertesting.com to design and run remote unmoderated studies. They provided her with a free license for each student to run 5 participants.

When I teach in Spring (and if we are still online), I plan to have students work through the different options for remote testing and decide which method/tool to use depending on their research questions and articulate why. Having the students engage in both the deliberation and articulation of choosing research tools is a helpful exercise and one that will serve them well as the enter the profession.

This article is a very simple primer (from Adobe, excuse the corporate content but its quite good) https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/user-testing/remote-usability-testing/. It lays out the different approaches and some possible tools for each.

Look forward to hearing others’ approaches!

All the best,
Emma
------
Emma Rose, PhD
pronouns: she/her

Associate Professor
Writing Studies & Technical Communication
University of Washington | Tacoma
On Sep 24, 2020, 5:58 AM -0700, Stephen Bernhardt <sab at udel.edu>, wrote:
> Could students evaluate usability of the tools they are using, like Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, or filesharing, concurrent authoring, or revision markup tools in Adobe, a CMS, or other software systems?
>
> Steve Bernhardt
> Santa Fe, NM
>
>
> > On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 8:35 AM Pass, Elizabeth Ruth - passer <PASSER at jmu.edu> wrote:
> > > Miles-
> > > I've been struggling with teaching the Usability Testing course online, as well. I taught it last spring when we moved online. Students in my course use the Krug and Barnum text and I also focus a lot on accessibility/ADA/disability studies.
> > >
> > > We went online during the formal testing project, right as they were conducting run-throughs and about to conduct the usability tests. I did a quick run-down on how to test online and told the class that because they have already recruited their participants, they could test them online if they want. They had already downloaded a trial version of Camtasia so they could record the test, or I let them use any other app/program (e.g. Google Meet) they felt comfortable with.
> > >
> > > For the informal tests the students will conduct in the online Usability Testing this spring, I'll let the students test each other, as long as the websites they choose fit (which is almost a guarantee). Our university has licenses for WebEx and Zoom--so students are familiar with them and both allow sharing and recording.
> > >
> > > For the formal test, students will recruit as they did in the past--through other classes, organizations they are a part of, family friends, etc.
> > >
> > > The only problem I've run into is how to include/recruit those with accessibility needs to represent the audiences of the websites. I've found nothing in the lit. that discusses how to do this (if you know of any, please let me know). How do you recruit for participants with accessibility needs ("I'm writing to recruit those who have accessibility needs or disabilities according to the legal definition as participants.... If you have a physical, visual, cognitive....") or approach someone you think has an accessibility need ("Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude, but it looks like you have an artificial leg. Do you mind....") Talk about awkward and rude.
> > >
> > > Fortunately, a colleague and close friend of mine has colorblindness, some hearing issues, and because of MS he has difficulty using the mouse and trackpad. I spoke with him and asked if he would be willing to serve as a participant for the students to use for usability testing. It's one thing to test for accessibility; it's another thing to have someone responding to the researcher about issues in real-time. After the testings, I'm also going to have a synchronous class so he can speak with the students and explain his experiences and issues he's had navigating websites. Also, students will be able to ask him questions.
> > >
> > > I know this is not an opportunity available in a usability testing course every time; however, maybe you know someone you are comfortable enough with/close enough with to ask if he/she would do the same or at least share his/her experiences.
> > >
> > > Best of luck and if you discover solutions, I'd appreciate the pass-along--
> > > Elizabeth
> > >
> > > Elizabeth R. Pass, Ph.D.
> > > Associate Professor
> > > School of Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication
> > > James Madison University
> > > 54 Bluestone Drive
> > > MSC 2103, Harrison Hall 2258
> > > Harrisonburg, VA 22807
> > > 540.568.8139
> > > passer at jmu.edu
> > > sites.jmu.edu/HelpfulResources/
> > > From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of Miles Kimball <miles.kimball at gmail.com>
> > > Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2020 7:35:07 AM
> > > To: attw-l at attw.org
> > > Subject: [ATTW-L] usability online?
> > >
> > > Anyone care to share approaches to teaching usability testing in an online class? Traditional usability testing  is difficult to do fully online without asking the test subjects to bear a lot of the load (setting up cameras and so on). In the past, with f2f classes I've tried to keep the focus on paper prototype testing, but even that seems unworkable online.
> > >
> > > Any ideas or thoughts?
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Miles
> > >
> > > --
> > > Miles Kimball, PhD
> > > Professor, Department of Communication and Media
> > > Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
> > >
> > >
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