Playing Away From Home: Usability Testing in a Global World
John M. Murphy, Steve Howard, Jesper Kjeldskov · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) · 2005
Increasingly usability professionals are engaged in a global practice. ‘Playing away from home’ includes those occasions when we need to conduct usability work in a distant and perhaps unfamiliar country or culture, or those occasions when direct access to the use context and participants is not possible, and remote usability work is necessary. Through two case studies we examine some of the challenges experienced in relation to usability testing in distant and unfamiliar territories. In Case 1 we focus on international usability testing as conducted across five countries in five different regions of the world. We define a framework that supports practitioners in the design of international usability tests. In Case 2 we focus on remote testing, and reflect on the meaning and persistent influence of ‘location’ on testing practice. Throughout we describe the context of the problem, associated challenges, and outline lessons learned.