Evaluation Assignment 3 – Usability Test Schedule

Scheduling

The usability test sessions must be scheduled three weeks before the actual testing because many individuals must be coordinated and space made available. Undergraduate team members must coordinate with you. Also, space for the testing must be coordinated. Finally, I must seek participants for the tests.

Number of Sessions and Team Assistance

You should schedule 6 test sessions for the thirteenth week of the semester. Each session is an hour and at least two team members should assist you during each session. Each team member should attend at least 3 usability test sessions. You can use the two team members to help with each session. One student can demonstrate the application to the participant and the other students can take notes. Sometimes the application does not work properly so you will need students to help repair the application. I recommend not scheduling any testing before the 10 am because students like to sleep in late.

Schedule and Participant Registration Process

The process for scheduling your usability test sessions and for participants to register for usability test sessions is:

  1. You determine session times that the development team can assist you with in the usability tests. In addition, decide where you want to conduct the test, the testing location. Make a record of usability test times, locations and development team members that will assist you.
  2. I will email you access to a google sheet called the “Usability Test Sessions”. You will enter the usability test session times, including your name, the app name, and location in the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet. Make sure the information is correct. See Google Sheets Details section below.
  3. After the deadline for entering usability test times in the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet, I will instructors instruction and access to “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet.
  4. Students from lower level classes will receive the URL for the”Usability Test Sessions” google sheet. They will reserve a usability test time by entering their names, emails, and classes that they wish to receive credit for participating into the google sheet.
  5. After the deadline for participants to register for usability tests, you will have access to”Usability Test Sessions” google sheet. The google sheet also contains a column for you indicate weather the participants attended or not.
  6. A day before each usability test, you should look up the email address of the participant and email the participant a reminder of the usability test time and location.
  7. After you have conducted a usability test, you should enter on the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet weather the student attended your usability test session.
  8. After the deadline for entering the attendance in the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheets, I will give the instructors that offer credit for participating in the usability tests access to the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet. They will use the google sheet to decide who should receive credit for participating.

Google Sheets Details

Usability Test Sessions google sheet

Prior to the usability testing, I will email you access to the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet that you will use to record a usability test sessions. The “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet has headings:

  • Adminstrator – you should enter your first and last name in this field. Be consistent with the name so that later you can order the google sheet by appName and find your usability test sessions.
  • App –  you should enter the app name that you are testing. Be consistent with the app name.
  • Testing Date – you should enter the usability test time and date. The formatting of the test date and time is very specific because the “Usability Test Signup” web app will convert it to a Date object. The format is MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM or PM. For example, suppose that you wish to schedule a usability test session for April 17, 2017, at 10:05 am, then your should enter the data as 4/17/2017 10:05 AM. If you want to schedule the date April 19, 2017 at noon, then you would enter 4/19/2017 12:00 PM. The google sheet will try to validate your entry, but you are responsible for entering the correct date and time. Otherwise, the wrong date and time will be displayed in the “Usability Test Signup” web app.
  • Location – you should enter the location of the usability test. Be sure to give the room number and building so that the participant can find the location.
  • Name – Participants enter first and last names.
  • Email – Participants’ emails as they entered it. Use this email address to remind participants of the usability test time and location.
  • Course – This is the course that the participant wishes to get extra credit for.
  • Attended – This is a column for you to enter weather the participant attended the usability test session or not. If the participant attended then enter “yes”. If not then enter “no”.

Enter this information correctly, or the data will not display properly in the “Usability Test Signup” web app.

Submit on Canvas

As soon as possible after you have entered your schedule in the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheet, submit on canvas that you have done, so that I can inspect your entries.

Please include the “Administrator” name that you entered in the google sheet in your submission. Also tell me that you have checked with your development team and that team member is available during your scheduled hours.

During the Testing

The day before the a participant’s session, you should send them an email reminder of the testing including the time and location.

In the “Usability Test Sessions” google sheets the final column in the google sheet is labelled “Attended.” During the testing, you should mark in corresponding cell if the participant attended the session or not. You can write in the cell “yes” or “no”.

When all of the testing is done, I will notify the instructors, and they can give the students that participated in the testing extra credit.

Modifications for Spring 2020

In the location column enter only “zoom” (without the quotes). You will need to email the participant the day before the testing the link to the Zoom meeting.