research for video testing

some of the research I conducted for video testing assignment:

The testing script I used is based upon Steve’s Krug’s testing script recommendations (Krug 2006,146-155). I also downloaded a sample script and video release form from his web site sensible.com (Krug, 2007) and used both with some minor adjustments in my testing sessions. I did not copy either of these scripts word for word and made some changes, for example, I did not want to ask users “what would you click on first” (Krug 2006, 150) as I felt that may alter their use of the site as it would be better to just observe what they just naturally click on before any tasks are asked of them.

Steve Krug (Krug 2006, 144) recommends “Get it “ testing and “key task testing”, the first is about whether the participant gets what the site is about and how it is organized and works etc. The second concerns asking the user to perform a task and watching how they perform the task. I used both of his recommendations in this video testing assignment. In fact nearly all of my research for this assignment came from Krug’s book “Don’t make me think” (Krug, 2006). With the following exception:

The idea behind the following recommendations is to maximize verbal contribution along with the physical tasks users perform, although some usability experts recommend not to place too much emphasis on user comments, Isabelle Peyrichoux’ article proposes a method to minimize the risks (Peyrichoux, 2007). She believes that to just focus on the physical tasks can produce misleading and limited results and instead we should also apply the following 10 recommendations:

Be aware of your own judgements and projections
Be genuine and transparent
Adapt to each user. Do not ask users adapt to you
Be conscious of the way users are interacting with you
Get users to speak about their own experiences
Notice when users are censoring their own comments
Get user to speak in terms of problems, not solutions
Ask “why” and dig deeper
Make objective and precise observations
Allow users to be spontaneous and follow their flow


I tried to apply all of the above during my testing, it is not always easy to remember them in the heat of the moment. I found it hard to know when users are censoring comments, one user asked if “it was okay to swear”? even though her comment makes her thoughts obvious it is not always so easy to know what users are really thinking as they may be too polite to voice their thoughts.

Peyrichoux, P. (2007) When observing users is not enough: 10 Guidelines for getting more out of user’s verbal comments,
Retrieved from: http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000183.phpApril 3, 2007.

Krug, S. (2006) Don’t Make Me Think, A common sense approach to Web Usability, Second Edition, New Riders Publishing, Berkeley, California USA.

Krug, S. (2007) Advanced Common Sense
Retrieved from: http://www.sensible.com/
March 28, 2007.