Completed last test yesterday the participant is a friend who I noticed was really holding back during her session and then it came out (halfway through second site) that she thought I had designed the sites she was viewing! After it was explained that I hadn't created them she relaxed and was more vocal with her opinions. Prior to this she had been pulling faces and making me laugh, all unprofessional! Need to use strangers next time, on second thought; serious strangers. But a bit of fun is good as long as it is not directed at the testers abilities but at the sites or yourself, for after all we are testing the site not the user (Krug, 2006).
I used camstudio (http://www.camstudio.org/ ) a screen desktop recorder with a microphone I plugged in and this worked well. The quality a bit shoddy sometimes but it's still okay to view. Only thing is you miss some of the participants facial expressions which often say more than their words.
Usabilty testing is a great eye opener to how people use the web. You realise that what appears obvious to me is not to others and how little of the technology behind some sites is realised or even noticed by testing participants. I guess due to confidentiality I cannot go into specifics here, but in general I noticed the following:
- none of my participants seemed to realise what flash and text only versions were.
- unless links are really obvious they don't tend to find them.
- they can get frustrated and give up quite easily.
- whether they blame themselves or the site design, the result is the same, they give up and probably wont bother with the site ever again.
- noise is a bad thing.
- aesthetically, opinions vary.
- I notice how much participants relied upon images to key them into what a site is about, some will gather a view of the site from images and stick to that view regardless of what any text says.
- Their opinion as to what the site is about can change throughout the session, depending on what they notice around the site.
- even things right in front of participants on the screen can be missed if they are not obvious and well headed.
- if sections are not explained well (and explanation read) users can assume all kinds of different things as to where they are and what they are in.
- I (we) ended up in Jakob Nielsen's usability website during one session so you never know where these tests will take you.
I really enjoyed the teating experience and the insights gained, Steve Krug is right, people don't want to think (Krug, 2006). I felt I lacked professionalism during the testing, mainly due to using friends and family in the sessions. I'll know better next time.
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