Useability tests

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

>> Linux has nice tools to make it a very simple environment to use. But
>> it's
>> *really* important to test these user interfaces. One of the profs at
>> Ryerson recruited me for a useability test, and one minute into the test
>> I
>> had unintentionally navigated the thing into a black hole.
>
> Was that a beta test on something new or usability test on a downloaded
> application ?
>
It was something new, some teaching software that had been tailored to
support a particular engineering course.

In another case, several Ontario universities joined together to create -
or purchase - RACER, a program to manage inter-library loans. The initial
user interface was *horrible*. In response to my complaint, the folks my
university library offered to spend a morning teaching me how to use it.
It's a sure sign of a lousy human-computer interface that someone has to
show you how to use it.

Anyway, I moved the complaint up the heirarchy and to her credit the
library director admitted that the program had problems, and eventually
they fixed them.

As I pointed out to the library at the time, it's a very simple exercise 
to put a naive user in front of your software, ask them to operate it, and
watch what happens. (Recording the user's  stream-of-conciousness thoughts
also helps.) . It exposes all sorts of screwups.

P.




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