Web application: user testing

Goals

• learn about your application's usability by watching other people try it out
• practice keeping quiet and just observing other people as they use your software (this is hard!)
• get inspired by what other people are doing with their web applications

Rubric

Preparation for May 30

• Make sure your web application is ready to run on stearns during class.
• Come to class prepared with one or two simple tasks to give people who are trying out your app. Have a couple ideas that are harder than trivial, but can actually be achieved with your application in less than a minute or so for a brand new user. For example, "find an animal that is native to both Canada and Mexico" or "how many tsunamis occurred between the years 500 and 600?"
• Bring something other than your laptop so you can take notes while your laptop is in use. (Paper, phone, tablet, whatever.)

During class

1. 8:30: use one teammate's laptop to fire up your web app on stearns and then open it in a browser window.
2. 8:30: send the other teammate(s) (the Testers) out to visit other teams, while the laptop's owner (the Observer) stays behind to make observations.

3. 8:30-8:55: when a new Tester arrives:

   • Observer should reload the home page of the web app in a browser tap and maximize the browser window
   • Tester should sit down and play around with the site for a minute or two. Ideally, the Tester should talk through their thought processes while they try out the application. When you're a Tester, be polite and constructive, while feeling free to mention both things that you like and things you find confusing, etc.
   • After Tester has gotten a feel for the app, Observer should give Tester a task to perform, and Tester should try to perform it.
   • Throughout the time Tester is using the application, Observer should watch, take notes, and not talk unless Tester asks a direct question (and even then, try to just give very short answers).
4. 8:55: switch so that the Observers become Testers and vice versa. (If your team has three teammates, switch to a new Observer at 8:45 and 9:00.)

After class

Write up your team's observations from when each of you were Observer, and put the writeup in the file doc/user-testing.txt by the end of the day on May 30. Use a structure roughly like this.

Thanks for helping your classmates!