Usability Engineering

Assignment 2 Part 1 – Group Assignment (10%)

This assignment is due on Thursday, April 23, 2020, at 9am

Overview

Assignment 2 is about the design and implementation of Usability Testing

Assignment 2 consists of two components: Part 1, Part 2 for a total of 45 % of your overall work.

Part 1 – Test plan for larger user study [ 10%]

Part 2 – Final report for larger user study [35%]

This document contains only Part 1 of Assignment 2.

Important Instructions

You must work in a group of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 people. You should work with other

people from your Prac class, because one Tutor will mark the group submission. You

can work with students from another Prac class provided you agree which Tutor to

submit your work to and this Tutor knows and agrees. Only one submission should

be made per group. Make sure that every group member’s name is on the

submission, as well as the Tutor’s name and Prac time information.

Step 1: The website we will be working with is RMIT: www.rmit.edu.au. Your team needs to identify at least five (5) clear tasks which different users accessing the RMIT website could reasonably expect to conduct.

Step 2: Make a Test Plan This test plan from Part 1 will be used in Assignment 2 Part 2.

What to look for in creating the Test Plan:

• Documents and processes that you will need for the usability test

• Online templates and other test materials can be found in Week 4 Learning

Materials

How to prepare a test plan

1. Gather information and identify tasks.

Identify user profiles, market segments and aspects of the website that you

will test.

2. Screeners, tasks and scenarios

Use the user profiles and draft a screener / questionnaire to identify the right

participant in your test. Focus on the unique attributes that the user must

have.

Define tasks that the users you recruit will perform. Please note that if the

user requires an account, you cannot provide your own RMIT account details.

The task must not specify to create a log in, this is a step that the user may

decide they would need to take if necessary.

3. Test script, Observation Sheet and Consent Form

Prepare:

• A script to be read by the facilitator to the participant on the day of the test.

The script must welcome the participant and provide them with the

necessary information about the test

• An observation sheet to note down your observation during the test

• A consent form to be filled and signed by the participant.

4. Checking

Do a run-through of the entire test to ensure that it will take no more than 45

minutes of the user’s time. Assume that the tasks will take 3-10 times the time

an expert takes to do the task. (See Kuniavsky 2012, p285).

Task Checklist

• Do I have a good number of varied tasks? // 3 – 5

• Is the task too easy for the user? //It shouldn’t be

• Is the task realistic? // It must be

• Will the user I recruit be too familiar with the task? //It shouldn’t be

Marking Guide

Where to submit? The test plan should be submitted via Turnitin in Canvas.

Plagiarism Checking via the Turnitin Originality report (via the Canvas submission) Any templates or information that you gather from other sources should be

referenced in Section 8: Source documents. Since your submission contains

templates it would not be surprising if the Originality Report percentage is very high.

You should make sure that your input in the follow sections is unique:

Section 1: Participant and Recruitment Summary

Section 7: User Task Sheets (for participants)

Section Criteria Mark 1 Section 1 – Participant and Recruitment Summary

Age range and source of participants is defined. The age must be more than 18

years

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2 Section 2 – Facilitator script The facilitator script must include the following –

• Participant introduction

• Testing the website and not the participant’s abilities

• Video recording and the distribution and usage of it

• Duration of the test, the number of tasks, testing environment

• Participant can withdraw at any time, ask questions and encouraged to think aloud

• If you have used an external source / template, please reference the script in Section 8

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3 Section 3 – Screener and Pre-test Questionnaire

• Screening questions used to identify the eligible participant (Section 1)

• Pre-test questions gather relevant information that may be useful for defining user characteristics

• If you have used an external source / template, please reference the script in Section 8

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4 Section 4 – Post-test Questionnaire

• Post-test questions could include the ‘SUS’ and/or specific task based questions.

• Should be sufficient and provide relevant data for analysis

• If you have used an external source / template, please reference the script in Section 8

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5 Section 5 – Consent form

• Includes website section name and test duration

• Consent to the test, filling out questionnaires, performing the tasks and recording

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6 Section 6 – User Task description

• The tasks include an objective, scenario, dependencies, possible solution, estimated length and criteria for completion.

• There should be sufficient number of tasks.

• Tasks should not be trivial but relevant to the core functions of website.

• Avoid signup / sign in as a task

• Scaffolding / materials like username/password should be provided

2

7 Section 7 – User Task Sheets (for participants)

• Scenarios are written in terms of user goals.

• Scenarios are unambiguous and short.

• Scenarios are realistic and provide a motive for end goal of task

• Scenarios are written in the user’s words

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8 Section 8- Source documents

• List the section and the reference used. 2

9 Test Plan structure and presentation

• Presentation and structure

• Adherence to template

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