Appendix P - Usability Testing Overview

Summary

Introduction

This appendix provides a brief overview of the process of usability testing. For a comprehensive treatment of this topic see (9).

Specifically, this appendix describes the roles and responsibilities, test design, test and post-test activities, and provides a graphical view of the organization of a typical usability test.

Roles and Responsibilities

The following roles are applicable to usability testing:

• Test team leader – the usability testing project is managed on a day-to-day basis by the test team leader, who is also responsible for liaising with all other staff involved in testing

• Test analyst – the usability testing scenarios are devised by the test analyst with reference to available usability requirements for the application under test (AUT) and in close collaboration with the development team leader. This collaboration is essential for identifying specific areas of concern within the AUT user interface (UI) that may need to be investigated

• User representative(s) – Usability testing is conducted by a number of user representatives (users). For the purposes of obtaining accurate statistical results, the more users that can be persuaded to get involved, the better. As a general rule, ten users is the minimum number that should be involved in a testing project

• Test observer – the testing is remotely monitored by a test observer, who monitors all sources of information from the test (video, audio, and captured AUT UI images) and who has computer-aided support for subsequent analysis of the information

• Development team leader – the development team leader may optionally sit with the test observer to observe the test

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