Professional Website Usability

Part 4: Implementing a Web Usability Study

Web usability testing isn't as easy as you thought, is it? If you're not a planner, it's probably particularly difficult, but hopefully, this series of articles have given you tools and information to make you more comfortable. (I'm a planner, so I like this stuff…go figure!) Doing a study by the seat of your proverbial pants isn't a good idea; the risks are too high to you, your company and your website. Now that you've moved through three parts of this five-part series, I hope get a sense that there are many individual pieces that need to work together to implement your study. Implementing your study generally involves the following:

• Identifying roles and responsibilities
• Getting a snapshot of a typical session

1) Identifying roles and responsibilities

It's truly a team effort to run a successful Website Usability study. One person physically could not do it alone unless all the participants were in one room, with a sophisticated interactive, audio/video interface and cameras and voice recorders poised in front of each participant. Yes, then, the facilitator could observe from a distance and sip a cup of expensive coffee and take in all the sights. It wouldn't be much fun for the participants and the cost would be more than most of our budgets could afford. There are circumstances when these resources can be deployed, but I don't see my management putting up that kind of money any time soon.

There are three key roles to administering the study. These are:

Facilitator

The facilitator is generally the organizer of the study and the one who will (before the session) facilitate a dry run with the observers, confirm participants, order food, confirm the location and equipment and secure the incentive and (during the session) open the actual session with a welcoming message, provide an overview of how the study will be run, communicate when there will be a break, what the observer will do during the study, and the ground rules. The facilitator will also close the session with a thank you message, give out the token of appreciation or other incentive and describe next steps or how the data will be used.

Participant

The participant will focus on addressing the activities and questions in the evaluation tool. During the study, the majority of participants will take it seriously and be glad that you asked for their input. They will focus on each activity and question and try to give an honest response. Some participants are conscientious to the point where they need to be prodded by the observer to move along and to refocus on providing first impressions. A participant who gets lost performing an activity will tend to become quiet and should be prompted by the observer to express their frustration or what's happening. Some participants struggle with this because they are so used to figuring these types of challenges out on their own. While the observer should encourage them to verbalize, they should not give the participant the answer.

Observer

The observer focuses on documenting the user experience. A good observer will establish a comfort with the participant at first, asking where they're from or what their job function is. This relationship-building pays off because the more at ease the participant is, the more relaxed they tend to perform each activity. Observers should note the responses clearly and try to summarize what the participant has said using complete sentences in clearly written handwriting.

2) Getting a Snapshot of a Session

Let's transport you to the day of the study now where all this work will come together.

The time of the session: The actual session(s) could be held:

In the morning
Start no earlier than 9:00 a.m. and take into account any rush-hour traffic in the area to give everyone time to arrive and reduce the number of late arrivals. Consider the 9-11:45 timeframe as your window of opportunity for the morning (remember, the closer you get to the lunch hour, the more distracted the participants will be).

In the late afternoon
A session right after lunch would be disastrous, so I wouldn't recommend an afternoon session until after 2:00 p.m. and it should end by 4:00 p.m. Learn about the traffic in the area and be respectful of your participants and end the session earlier if needed.

After dinner
A session after dinner would work (especially if you're providing the dinner), so another window of opportunity might be the 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. timeframe. I wouldn't run it after 9:00 p.m. because people get tired and the quality of the results would go down.

The facilitator, who probably cares the most how the session goes, should

• Arrive two hours early to ensure that equipment is installed properly and in good working order.
• Have in his/her possession all the documents generated to date in a project folder: the approved strategy, the implementation plan, the evaluation tool and criteria.
• Have in his/her possession a list of all the participants and observers who are expected to attend. Each should be checked off as they arrive.
• Have the incentive or other token of appreciation for the participants on their person or confirmed at the site

Each participant should be introduced to their observer and asked to take a seat. Try to start at the appointed time, but if you're still missing participants, wait 3-5 more minutes, but no more. I like to respect the effort made by those who made it on time, so I do go ahead and get started.