February 8, 2007 by Greg Schuessler.

Understanding how a user navigates, finds information and interacts with your Web site is extremely important and beneficial to both you and the user. Let’s make their life easier while increasing profits on our end!

Usability testing typically consists of the following:

• A one to two day process with 4-8 participants per day
• Tasks are performed individually which have been pre-determined
• Should take 1-hour approximately per session (You can’t test everything!)
• The Test Facilitator, also known as a Usability Specialist, watches and takes notes
• The computer screen can be recorded using software such as Camtasia Studio
  
• Business owners and sometimes the development team will watch the session from an observation room
• The results show what is working and what is not working

To learn more about Usability Testing check out the definition on Wikipedia.

Posted in Methods | 1 Comment »

January 5, 2007 by Greg Schuessler.

It’s Friday and you’re looking forward to the weekend. Phone rings and you answer to hear ”Wanna play some cards?” by the person on the other end of the line. That’s right, wanna do some Card Sorting!? 

Card sorting is a way to involve users in grouping information for a Web site, as defined by Usability.gov.

The key here is really allowing the user to define how they organize content for a particular Website, while a Usability Specialist watches and takes note of the feedback.

Receiving information from a participant of a Card Sort can help you better define the architecture of your Website.

There are two types of Card Sorts:

• Open Card Sort = Participants organize cards into groups that make sense to them and then name each group.
• Closed Card Sort = Participants organize cards into pre-defined categories.

While both are valuable I believe it to be benefitial to implement both per Website design. Unless of course you absolutely sure what the categories should be named!

Learn more about Card Sorting by visiting the how card sort works section on usability.gov.

Posted in Methods | 1 Comment »