A Simple Approach to Web-Site Usability Testing
Mikael B. Skov, Jan Stage · 2001
Universal access requires dissemination of usability engineering competence to a wider audience. The multitude of qualifications involved and the strong limitations on development time make classical usability work virtually impossible. This article reports from an empirical study of web-site usability testing conducted by a diverse group of people with no formal education in software development or usability testing. 36 teams of four to eight first-year university students with an interest but no education in information technology were trained in a simple approach to web-site usability testing. The article describes how they applied this approach for planning, conducting, and interpreting a usability evaluation of the same web-site. The student teams gained competence in defining good task assignments and ability to express the problems they found. They were less successful when it came to interpretation and analytical skills. They found quite few problems, and they seemed to lack an understanding of the characteristics that makes a problem list applicable. It is concluded that basic usability testing skills can be developed in a week. 1.