Moderating Usability Tests
Principles and Practices for Interacting
By- Joseph Dumas, User Experience Consultant
- Beth Loring
Many aspects of usability testing have been thoroughly studied and documented. This isnt true, however, of the details of interacting with the test participants who provide the critical usability data. This omission has meant that there have been no training materials and no principles from which new moderators can learn how to interact.Moderating Usability Tests is the place for new and experienced moderators to learn about the rules and practices for interacting that have never been described in one place before. Authors Dumas and Loring draw on their combined 40 years of usability testing experience to develop and present the most effective principles and practices - both practical and ethical --for moderating successful usability tests.To help usability professionals, students, and novices understand these principles, the authors provide videos from their lab that demonstrate good and poor interaction as well as commentary from a panel of testing experts on why certain techniques succeed or fail. The videos are accessible from the publishers companion web site.
Audience
Usability professionals and software and web design professionals who run usability studies and do user testing, including human factors engineers, usability practitioners/engineers, technical communication professionals, interaction designers, software developers, quality assurance people, and anyone else who needs to do this work.
Paperback, 208 Pages
Published: February 2008
Imprint: Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 978-0-12-373933-9
Contents
- CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Why This Book?1.2 What Is Usability Testing? 1.3 The Importance of Moderating Skills 1.4 The Golden Rules of Moderating 1.5 Cultural Points of View1.6 About the Sidebars in This Book1.7 About the Videos that Accompany This Book 1.8 About the Companion Web Site CHAPTER 2 Getting started as a test moderator 2.1 What Makes a Great Moderator?2.2 Roles of a Moderator 2.3 Testing Locations 2.4 Test Preparation 2.5 Jump-Starting Your Moderating Skills CHAPTER 3 Golden rules 1 through 5 3.1 Rule 1: Decide How to Interact Based on the Purpose of the Test 3.2 Rule 2: Protect Participants Rights3.3 Rule 3: Remember Your Responsibility to Future Users3.4 Rule 4: Respect the Participants as Experts, but Remain3.5 Rule 5: Be Professional, Which Includes Being GenuineCHAPTER 4 Golden rules 6 through 104.1 Rule 6: Let the Participants Speak!4.2 Rule 7: Remember That Your Intuition Can Hurt and Help You 4.3 Rule 8: Be Unbiased 4.4 Rule 9: Dont Give Away Information Inadvertently 4.5 Rule 10: Watch Yourself to Keep SharpCHAPTER 5 Initial contacts5.1 Recruiting5.2 When Participants Arrive5.3 The Pretest Briefing 5.4 Transitioning to the Tasks CHAPTER 6 Interacting during the session 6.1 Interacting for a Reason 6.2 Keeping Them Talking 6.3 When and How to Probe6.4 Providing Encouragement6.5 Dealing with Failure 6.6 Providing AssistanceCHAPTER 7 Interacting during post-test activities7.1 Maintaining Your Roles 7.2 Determining the Order of Activities 7.3 Clarifying Things That Occurred during the Test 7.4 Administering Ratings and Questionnaires7.5 Asking Open-Ended Questions 7.6 Allowing Others to Interact with Participants 7.7 Final ActivitiesCHAPTER 8 Interacting in a remote test session 8.1 What Is Remote Testing? 8.2 Preparing for the Session 8.3 Interacting during the Session CHAPTER 9 Moderatorparticipant arrangements 9.1 A Bit of History9.2 Physical Arrangement 9.3 Beliefs about Arrangements 9.4 Choice of Arrangement 9.5 Considerations for the PractitionerCHAPTER 10 Interacting with diverse populations 10.1 General Guidelines 10.2 People with Physical Disabilities10.3 The Elderly 10.4 People Who Have Low Literacy Skills 10.5 Children and Teens 10.6 People From Other CulturesCHAPTER 11 Integrating the videos 11.1 About the Videos11.2 Content of the Videos11.3 The Future of Usability Testing
