Overview

This document describes a test plan for conducting a usability test during final stages of the development of MercerSpot.com The goals of usability testing include establishing a baseline of user identifying potential design concerns to be addressed in order to improve the efficiency, productivity, and end-user satisfaction

The usability test objectives are:

• To determine design inconsistencies and usability problem areas within the user interface and content areas. Potential sources of error may include:
• Navigation errors – failure to locate functions, excessive keystrokes to complete a function, failure to follow recommended screen flow.
• Presentation errors – failure to locate and properly act upon desired information in screens, selection errors due to labeling ambiguities.
• Exercise web site under controlled test conditions with representative users.

 
The MercerSpot.com is a project designed for current Mercer students and faculty. Two users representing two groups would participate in the study. The testing of the subject interaction with the website will be conducted in lab sessions and remotely.

Summary

Specific functions to be evaluated are:

• Registration/Log-in process
• Accessing course/professor page
• Accessing stream class
• Creating stream class
• Creating topic on course forum
• Responding to topic on forum
• Selling textbook
• Buying textbook
• Posting news to course, professor, or mercer page.

The goal of the usability testing is to analyze easiness of use and learning.

Methodology

One participant usually yields 1/3 of usability problems. Therefore a total of four would be used in a study. Two of the participants will be current students and two faculty members. In both groups one user will test the application in lab and other remotely. The lab testing will include talk aloud technique to allow users express his experience with the application. After the session participant would go through short interview.  The remote user would be supplemented with a scenario and questionnaire. The tools used during the study will include: two types of browsers and eye tracking software. The measures collected during the study would include demographics, computer skills, satisfaction assessment, and suggestions for improvement.

Location
The location of the test is TBA.

Session

• Session time should not last more than 60 minutes.
• Before session start basic information about the participants’ would be gathered e.g. age, sex, computer knowledge,
• Participants would be supplied with scenarios to complete using MercerSpot.com
• After completion of the above mentioned scenario, user would participate in short interview which has on target highlight presentation and navigation errors.

Participants

• Two Faculty members
• Two current students

Equipment:

• Remote users:
• Operating system: N/A
• Browser: N/A
• Lab sessions
• Operating system: Windows 7
• Browser: Google chrome
• Audio recording device

Scenarios:

• You do not know what computer class choose next semester, open a discussion topic to current student asking what they learn in INFM110 course.
• Your teacher told you that next class will be online on new Mercerspot.com website. Try to access professor website and live stream class.
• You just enrolled in new INFM110 course and you want to look for textbook that past student may have posted for sale.
• Open a live stream session for your students.(Professor)
• Post news to INFM 110 class.(Professor)
• Dr. Liu told you that news about the courses she teaches are available at her website.
• Post a news to your own page.(Professor)
• You just finished your INFM110 class and want to sell your textbook.

Remote participant questionnaire

• What is your age?
• 18-25 ___
• 26-39 ___
• 40-59 ___
• 60-80 ___

• Are you:
• Student  ___
• Professor ___

• Computer Usage
• 0 to 10 hrs. wk. ___
• 11 to 25 hrs. wk. ___
• 26+ hrs. wk. ___

• Questions:

 
Open - Questions:

•  Whether errors occurred, and, if they did, whether appropriate and helpful error messages were encountered.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Suggested improvements:
• ____________________________________________________________________
• ____________________________________________________________________
• ____________________________________________________________________

• Is there anything that you feel is missing on this site?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Would you recommend MercerSpot to other users? Yes | No

Lab participant questionnaire

• What is your age?
• 18-25 ___
• 26-39 ___
• 40-59 ___
• 60-80 ___

• Are you:
• Student  ___
• Professor ___

• Computer Usage
• 0 to 10 hrs. wk. ___
• 11 to 25 hrs. wk. ___
• 26+ hrs. wk. ___

Questions:

The look of the website
What is your overall impression to MercerSpot? (its colors, fonts, graphic etc.)

What did you like least about the site? _____________________________________________________
Why?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What did you like best about the site? ______________________________________________________
Why?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Finding your ways around the website
Please comment how easy it was for you to navigate around the website? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Is it always clear where you are on the website?  Yes___  No___
If No, please explain why you feel lost and perhaps suggest how we can avoid that
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please list what you consider the 3 important section of the website

• ______________________________________________________________________________
• ______________________________________________________________________________
• ______________________________________________________________________________

What other areas of the content would you add to the website?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who do you think the intended audience is?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What would encourage you to return to this site in the future?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Interview Questions:

• How easy was it to find MercerSpot information?
• Were the navigation labels, pate titles, headings and other terms accurate and easy to understand and helpful through the navigation?
• Whether password-protected areas were easy to log into and use
• Was the login page easy to log into and easy to use?
• Whether errors occurred, and, if they did, whether appropriate and helpful error messages were encountered. If so, were the error messages appropriate and helpful?
• How would you describe the process of establishing live stream class?
• Would you prefer to receive messages regarding the textbook on your mercer email or personal? Or maybe you would like a buyer to contact you via phone.

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