@dana I am bit confused here by your question "What difference does it make how many you're testing?" Surely factors such as "margin of error", and "statistical power" are important, or are they not?
The point of testing is to find out if your wrong, or right. How do you know if your wrong or right based on a small sample. @jenrandolph On remote usability testing we get more behavioural differences by machine configuration, then by age. What I mean by machine configuration is manufacture and screen size. Mac users are different, why - I don't know. And we get allot of behavioural differences by culture - (place of birth vs residence). Also environment seams to have quite a large impact. People in the lab, and at home spend more time to trying to complete a task before giving up, then people at work. This is of course impacts success/failure rates. We are doing more research here. James http://blog.feralabs.com 2009/3/12 Dana Chisnell <[email protected]> > > What difference does it make how many you're testing? By breaking the > sample into groups, you're just creating extra work. Are you going to > compare the data by age group? Why would you do that? The only reason I can > think of is if you're creating different sites. You're not. > Dana > > > > On Mar 12, 2009, at 9:21 AM, James Page wrote: > > Out of interest how many participants are you testing with? Could > you break the numbers down? > James > http://blog.feralabs.com > > 2009/3/12 Dana Chisnell <[email protected]> > >> >> Thanks for the prompt, Jared. There's no reason to limit the age range >> *at all.* As long as the behaviors are the same -- that is, the task goals >> of the users -- across age ranges, then it doesn't matter a bit how old the >> participants are. >> >> As members of UPA, people over 65 would very likely have the same tasks >> and goals in mind as someone younger: Maintain membership information, renew >> memberships, find out what's going on in the association, get in the >> consulting directory, find out who is on the board, find out where the >> conference is, etc. >> >> Limiting the age range wouldn't benefit the research. In fact, limiting >> may be a detriment. >> >> Dana >> >> :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: >> :: :: >> Dana Chisnell >> desk: 415.392.0776 >> mobile: 415.519.1148 >> >> dana AT usabilityworks DOT net >> >> www.usabilityworks.net >> http://usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/ >> >> >> On Mar 12, 2009, at 12:04 AM, Jared Spool wrote: >> >> So? Why limit the age range? How does that benefit the research? >>> >>> On Mar 11, 2009, at 10:20 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: >>> >>> Perhaps because the core audience isn't older than 65? Not to say that >>>> there aren't any, but I'd imagine, based on the meetings and conferences >>>> that I've been to, that the number of people over 65 are statistically >>>> quite >>>> small. >>>> >>>> On Mar 11, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Dana Chisnell wrote: >>>> >>>> May I ask why the age range limits to 65? >>>>> >>>> >>> >> ________________________________________________________________ >> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >> To post to this list ....... [email protected] >> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help >> > > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
