Tag: Usability

This article talks about how even students who go to higher education institutions can still have problems with accessibility online. There is an organization called Open University Australia (OUA) that the author discusses and they are made up of seven universities and fifteen institutions that teach higher education to students completely online across both undergrad and postgrad. They attempt to help students with disabilities by giving the options upfront of disclosing any disabilities prior to the student’s enrollment. However, a problem comes in because of privacy legislation that prevents OUA from passing this information on to the institution the student has chosen to study at. To acquire data to help solve this problem OUA conducted an online survey for students who had registered as needing support because they were disabled. The survey focused on two things: the accessibility of the online platforms that are used for teaching, and what the motivation was for students who either chose to disclose their disability or not. The results of the study were that a little less than half of OUA students decided to respond to having a mental illness. The author, Mike Kent, then went on to examine the advantages of eLearning for those with a disability. He found that the biggest advantage of online learning was that the information could be formatted a variety of different ways to help a variety of different disabilities. There was visual formatting through images and text, audio formattings such as vocalized words or sounds, or even physical touch through a wearable technology they have. One of the main points the author made was that the design of the online platform was the biggest decider of whether eLearning was accessible to the student.

Mike, Kent. “Disability, Mental Illness, and ELearning: Invisible Behind the Screen?” The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 17 Dec. 2015, jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/disability-mental-illness-and-elearning-invisible-behind-the-screen/.

This article discusses why you only need to test your website with five users. Many people belief that testing is extensive and costly, but it turns out the best thing to do is run as many small tests as possible with fewer users. The researchers used the equation N (1-(1- L ) ⁿ ) to prove their statement. When you test with only one user, this user will give you some insight, but they will not hit everything. Then, the second user will give some of the same insight as the first user, but they will offer some additional insight. Next, the third user will offer many similar thoughts, but they will still have some new things to share. This pattern of overlap will continue as you increase the amount of users. You will start learning less and less, so there is really no point in continuing past five users because it will mostly be the same information. Although the graph indicates that you must test with at least 15 users to hit all the problems, it will save you money by running three small tests of five users each.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

The article I chose introduces us to usability as well as the components that make it what it is. Usability is described as how easy the user interfaces are for the user to actually use. The quality components that usability is defined by are learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors and satisfaction. Although there are many other quality attributes, these are seen as the five that are most important to a designs usability. The article then goes on to discuss the importance of usability and how it can be improved. The level of usability for a design or site is the most important thing to consider when creating. Without usability, no one is going to be able to enjoy or utilize the content to its fullest potential. Level of difficulty and lack of offering are two primary things that people look at when examining a website. No one is interested in having to figure out a website by themselves. People prefer there to be an organized lay out where it is clear what is going on as well as something that they can easily maneuver through. Usability is important to any website and design which makes it all the more important to test the usability every so often to ensure it is being used as it was created to do.

Nielsen, Jakob. “Usability 101: Introduction to Usability.” Nielsen Norman Group, 3 Jan. 2012, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/. Accessed 27 Feb. 2020.

Jakob Nielsen’s article is an introduction to the term usability and the process in making a website with the users first in mind. The term usability means how easy an interface is to use and is determined by five main components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfactions. Another key component is the term utility, which refers to how well a design function. By making sure a design has both usability and utility, that design is useful and easy to navigate for the user. Usability is important because if a user encounters a difficulty on the website, then they will leave. The best way to improve usability is by testing the design. This is called user testing and it is made up of three steps. The first step is to get representative users. The next step would be to ask the users to perform tasks on the design. The final step is to observe what the user is doing, if they are able to succeed, and how the user is reacting to using the design. Testing five users will often point out the biggest usability flaws or strengths. There are several steps that go into creating a usable design. The first step is to examine any old designs and determine what should be kept and what should be changed. The next step is to take a look at other competitors’ designs and then conduct a field study to see how users act in their own homes. Making paper prototypes of the design is an inexpensive way to plan. Then, the design can be created several times on the computer to find out what works best. Make sure the design follows the established usability guidelines, then test the final design. Test the design in a quiet space so that the users reactions can be heard and there are no other distractions.

The article “How to Maximize Insights in User Testing: Stepped User Tasks” covers how to successfully create a usability test and what can be learned from the test. Typically usability test tasks are too direct and lead users where they need to go which skews results. Pernice suggests using stepped tasks. Stepped tasks are defined as tasks in a set of related tasks that become more specific as the user moves through the test. The idea is to start broad. This allows companies to learn if users can easily maneuver the site and accomplish the tasks without being told of the features or guided towards them. From there, subtasks can be added on as “follow up questions” to help guide users in the right direction if they did not complete the task the first time. Pernice places an emphasis on observation rather than communication. While it is acceptable to give participants verbal reassurance, a conversation should not be started so the participants do not view the test as an interview. A good usability test is when the facilitator stays mostly quiet while handing the participant new tasks and recording their observations. Usability tests that involve stepped tasks are beneficial for companies to ensure their interface is working as expected or provides feedback for what the company should change to improve user experience.

Pernice, Kara. “How to Maximize Insights in User Testing: Stepped User Tasks.” Nielsen Norman Group, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-testing-stepped-tasks/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2020.