#11918
Methods for Successful 'Thinking Out Loud' Procedure
When you are screening the participants for a study, notice how they respond to your questions. Decide on a strategy for engaging the participant before they arrive for the usability study. Be careful of the social dynamics you set up with the participant.
Ramey, Judith A. STC Usability SIG (1998). Resources>Usability>Testing>Methods
#21162
Es una prueba de usabilidad que se basa en la observación y análisis de cómo un grupo de usuarios reales utiliza el sitio web, anotando los problemas de uso con los que se encuentran para poder solucionarlos posteriormente. Se trata de una prueba llevada a cabo en 'laboratorio', es decir, no debemos confundirla con un estudio de campo.
Hassan Montero, Yusef and Francisco Jesus Martin Fernandez. Nosolousabilidad.com (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Usability>Methods
#29403
Mobile Essentials: Field Study and Concepting
This paper describes a cross-cultural field study of what people consider to be mobile essentials, how those mobile essentials are carried and problems typically encountered.
Chipchase, Jan, Per Persson, Petri Piippo, et al. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Usability>Ethnographies>Methods
#30198
Multiple-User Simultaneous Testing (MUST)
Testing 5-10 users at once lets you conduct large-scale usability testing and still meet your deadlines.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#14999
Multiple-User Testing: When One Person Can't See Everything 
Describes the pros and cons of the methods used in designing two usability tests where constraints prevented observation of all participants by one person.
Kantner, Laurie, Deborah Hinderer and Connie Leas. Tec-Ed, Inc. (1997). Articles>Usability>Methods
#25902
We love a good detective novel, so it is no surprise that the sometimes mysterious nature in which market research operates gives us a similar kick. As the great Sherlock Holmes poses the endless questions for his unfortunate sidekick, Watson, it behooves us to do the same in our line of work: What is the ultimate goal of the ubiquitously mysterious end-client? Who will benefit from this study? Who ultimately has the means, the motive and the opportunity to participate?
Lundgren, Lauren and Tina Osinski. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods
#19445
The Need for Usability Analysis
An overview of methods for usability testing and analysis.
Xerox (1995). Presentations>Usability>Testing>Methods
#29510
The Next Frontier for User-Centered Design: Making User Representations More Usable
Personas are detailed descriptions of imaginary people constructed out of well-understood, highly specified data about real people. We believe that when you use data to create personas, and use personas in a thoughtful way during the product development process, you will: increase your product's usability, utility, and general appeal; streamline your team's processes and improve your colleagues' abilities to work together; enable your company to make business decisions that help both your company and your customers; improve your company's bottom line.
Pruitt, John and Tamara Adlin. Elsevier (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#14990
Not Just a Hammer: When and How to Employ Multiple Methods in Usability Programs
Why should usability programs incorporate many kinds of methodology to influence corporate decision-making? This paper describes what makes successful multiple-method usability programs. It discusses when to apply each method and how to justify usability programs to management.
Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. Tec-Ed, Inc. (2002). Articles>Usability>Methods
#25747
Usability testing is increasingly popular and effective for guiding Web site redesign. However, like any method, it has limitations, including a narrow focus at the expense of larger contexts. Analyzing Web sites with other techniques, including 1) rhetorical analysis based on research in rhetoric, design, and content of similar texts, and 2) content analysis based on matching Web content to an organization’s goals for its Web sites, can yield additional information. This information, which traditional usability tests don’t provide, can help designers better create Web sites. Web designers should not rely exclusively upon usability testing to provide information about Web site design, but instead should also examine how the sites invoke the audiences that they desire to reach.
McGovern, Heather. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods
#23043
Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research
With all the attention to usability over the last five years or so and the wonderful swelling of information-architecture-related books just since 2001, you would think we would have enough methods and advice to keep our projects in perfect tack. But so many of these resources, excellent though they are, tend to be more about how to pilot the ship than how to find that all-important star and keep it in sight.
Hinton, Andrew. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods
#19183
Observing Users Who Listen to Web Sites
In this article we focus on the first of these goals and give you some of the fascinating findings about how vision-impaired users work with web sites.
Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny' and Mary Frances Theofanos. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Methods
#29869
Online Surveys for the STC Carolina Chapter and Usability SIG
This paper discusses the processes used to develop two online STC surveys: the 'Employment and Salary Survey' conducted by the STC Carolina Chapter, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and the 'Member Survey' conducted by the STC Usability SIG. Both surveys were available during the winter of 2003. This paper also highlights results from these surveys to demonstrate findings that online surveys can provide. Throughout this paper, we offer suggestions that other groups can apply to their survey efforts, including working methods to employ, types of questions to ask, ways to increase response rates, and approaches to verify and describe the respondent sample.
Kleid, Naomi A. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Usability>Methods>Surveys
#29405
"Open Source" is not a Marketing Term
Open source software development is not just about providing the source code for your application. It is much more about building a community around a shared project. That takes time. I think the biggest myth about open source software is that you say 'hey, I'm open source now' and suddenly thousands of qualified people give up nights and weekends to work on your code.
Balog, Tarus. Adventures in Open Source (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Open Source>Methods
#29804
Opinions as Norms: Applying a Return Potential Model to the Study of Communication Behaviors 
This research investigates the impact of normative intensity (i.e., strength of feeling) and crystallization (i.e., level of agreement) regarding communication behaviors and perceptions of social sanctions. By adapting the return potential model originally set forth by Jay Jackson, the authors examine perceptions of communication behaviors as a normative opinion process. Telephone survey respondents were asked to offer their own personal opinions regarding several communicative behaviors. By calculating the normative power (NP = Normative Intensity × Crystallization) associated with each of these behaviors, predictions were made regarding the frequency of behavior. The authors also connect normative power with the social costs ascribed to acts falling outside the accepted realm of behavior. Results indicate that public opinion can be seen as a normative process in which the intensity and crystallization of the climate of opinion exert influence on behavior in various communication situations.
Glynn, Carroll J. and Michael E. Huge. Visual Communication (2007). Articles>Communication>Methods
#29623
An Orientation to Eye Tracking in Usability Studies
Eye tracking (ET) is a technique for capturing eye movements as a person looks at a computer interface. It provides insight into where a person is looking, for how long, and in what order. In usability testing, ET can help testers evaluate the quality of a website or software design based on the user’s eye activity. In this paper, we introduce you to ET and its application in usability. We identify questions that ET can answer, describe how it works, summarize some of the research in ET, and discuss its benefits and drawbacks in usability testing. with an eye tracker for usability testing. This process is specific to the ET hardware (ERICA) and software (GazeTracker) used in the Laboratory of Usability Testing in the Department of Technical Communication at the University of Washington (UWTC LUTE).
Chin, Crystal, Shirley Lee, and Judith Ramey. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Eye Tracking
#27941
Outliers and Luck in User Performance
6% of task attempts are extremely slow and constitute outliers in measured user performance. These sad incidents are caused by bad luck that designers can -- and should -- eradicate.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Usability>Testing>Methods
#25866
An Overview of Indexing Methods
Indexing is a mystery to many people who are writing and printing materials. An index is an offering to your readers - a way in to your material, a subject finder and a detailed guide to the contents of your piece. Indexing itself is a precise art, with not much real mystery when you get into it deeply.
Wright, Jan C. STC Indexing SIG (1998). Articles>Indexing>Methods
#28694
Carolyn Snyder's Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces provides the only complete guide to paper prototyping. It teaches you everything you need to know to successfully do paper prototyping and offers many practical tips. However, only about a third of the book is actually about doing paper prototyping. The majority of the book's content comprises a basic reference on usability testing. While some of the information on usability testing describes how to test paper prototypes, most of it is applicable to any type of usability testing. If you're already an expert in usability testing, you may not find this information as useful, but Snyder has honed her approach to usability testing over her many years of experience as a usability professional and provides a wealth of practical information.
Gabriel-Petit, Pabini. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>Methods
#23351
Persona Creation and Usage Toolkit
This toolkit enables you to build up detailed profiles of the personas themselves, their relationship to the product, and the context in which they use the product. The intended user of the toolkit is the product's designer, so it's it advisable to streamline the personas to critical aspects when presenting them outside the product development team. Even within the development team, not everyone may need every single detail about the persona.
Olsen, George. IAsummit (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#29271
Personas are a useful tool, but they need to be built with care. It's very easy to write a persona which on a quick glance looks good, but is actually not.
#26763
Personas are a documented set of archetypal users who are involved with a product, typically the product's users. Each persona has a name and a picture. They're supposed to give designers a sense that they are designing for specific people, not just generic, ill-defined users. Done well, this is exactly what personas do. The problem is, most teams build personas from the wrong kind of user information, or worse, base them on assumptions.
Saffer, Dan. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas
#29475
Personas: Focusing on Getting the Design Right
The individual components of a persona are described and an example persona relating to the SecureCam case study is provided.
Meighan, Fiona. Apogee (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#23293
' Personas' is an interaction design technique with considerable potential for software product development. In three years of use, our colleagues and we have extended Alan Cooperís technique to make Personas a powerful complement to other usability methods. After describing and illustrating our approach, we outline the psychological theory that explains why Personas are more engaging than design based primarily on scenarios. As Cooper and others have observed, Personas can engage team members very effectively. They also provide a conduit for conveying a broad range of qualitative and quantitative data, and focus attention on aspects of design and use that other methods do not.
Pruitt, John and Jonathan Grudin. Microsoft (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#22670
Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites
Personas are hypothetical archetypes, or 'stand-ins' for actual users that drive the decision making for interface design projects. Personas are not real people, but they represent real people throughout the design process. Personas are not 'made up'; they are discovered as a by-product of the investigative process.
Head, Alison J. Online Magazine (2003). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas
