Practical Guide to Usability Testing / Edition 1

by Joseph S. Dumas, Janice C. Redish

Overview

In this volume, the authors begin by defining usability, advocating and explaining the methods of usability engineering and reviewing many techniques for assessing and assuring usability throughout the development process. They then follow all the steps in planning and conducting a usability test, analyzing data, and using the results to improve both products and processes.
This book is simply written and filled with examples from many types of products and tests. It discusses the full range of testing options from quick studies with a few subjects to more formal tests with carefully designed controls. The authors discuss the place of usability laboratories in testing as well as the skills needed to conduct a test.
Included are forms to use or modify to conduct a usability test, as well as layouts of existing labs that will help the reader build his or her own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781841500201
Publisher:	Intellect, Limited
Publication date:	12/14/1999
Series:	Lives of Great Explorers Ser.
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Joseph S. Dumas is a chief scientist at American Institutes for Research.
 
Janice C. Redish is president of Redish & Associates, Inc. in Bethesda, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments
How to use this book
 
Part I: Concerning Usability
1.  Introducing usability
2.  Introducing usability testing
3.  Uncovering usability needs before you design
4.  Basing designs on expertise in human-computer interaction
5.  Evaluating usability throughout design and development
6.  Establishing a usability program in your organization
 
Part II:  Planning and Preparing for a Usability Test
7.  Planning a usability test
8.  Defining goals and concerns
9.  Deciding who should be participants
10.  Recruiting participants
11.  Selecting and organizing tasks to test
12.  Creating task scenarios
13.  Deciding how to measure usability
14.  Preparing test materials
15.  Preparing the test environment
16.  Preparing the test exam
17.  Conducting a pilot test
 
Part III:  Conducting and Using the Results of a Usability Test
18.  Caring for the test participants
19.  Conducting the test
20.  Tabulating and analyzing data
21.  Recommending changes
22.  Communicating the results
23.  Preparing a highlight tape
24.  Changing the Product and the process
 
References (from First Edition)
Additional Relevant Books
Appendix A - Setting up a usability lab
Appendix B - Relevant organizations and journals
Author Index
Subject Index