Hello Elisabeth, If I understand what you're asking, I think that showing someone a video of how something works and gauging the 'wow' factor could not really be called usability testing. That sounds more like a market research technique to see whether something is worth building or not.
If you are concerned about something that may be confusing, you may get more valid results by putting the design in front of users with no tasks and simply ask them to use it for whatever they think it does. Chances are if they are confused by it, they may miss the 'wow' factor completely. By not directing them to a specific task, you will find out whether they see the feature at all. I once did iterative testing for a year using directed tasks in the lab on an online system. When we followed users into the field, and simply asked them to show us how they used it, it turned out they didn't even notice the feature that we'd spent so much time developing and it had complicated the technology to the point that it was unusable for performance reasons. So to those potential customers, the feature did not exist and thus failed to create any 'wow'. Using directed tasks can often reveal to users that a feature exists, so you are then only testing whether it works well once users have discovered it. Best, Ron Ron Perkins, Principal DesignPerspectives.com Usability and Interaction Design Consulting 978-465-6083 -----Original Message----- From: ELISABETH HUBERT [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 6:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] A Usability Question Hi all, I'm not sure how usability works other places, but at my company we currently run mostly functional usability testing where the user has to complete a task. When they complete a task with minimal effort/confusion/etc. then that is deemed a successful outing. If not well you get the point. We are currently looking to test new concepts that I know will confuse most users since the idea is so new to them. I read in a recent Adaptive Path essay about the "wow" factor and they mentioned using video of the interaction then showing a user how the concept would work. My question to the group is has anyone done this type of usability testing before?? If so what were you goals/objectives for the test (user acceptance/excitement etc)? How did you set up the video/flash/interaction etc? was this method successful for you? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lis Hubert ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.20/1107 - Release Date: 11/3/2007 11:22 AM ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
