On Oct 5, 2009, at 3:29 AM, Harry wrote:
I suspect remote
unmoderated usability testing has potential to bring affordable
usability
testing to the masses.
I think that remote unmoderated usability testing can, on its surface,
be very affordable. There are plenty of services out there that make
it quite accessible to anyone who wants to use it. There are several
important considerations that I can think of in going with remote
unmoderated tests:
- By its nature, it must be a summative, validating test of a pretty
solid design. Doing remote, unmoderated tests of an early design or a
prototype of any sizable design is dangerous. If your customer pool is
large enough to do remote, unmoderated tests, you probably need to be
doing A-B testing.
- The test itself must be very, very well designed to get the data out
of it that will help teams make decisions that are as well informed as
they get out of doing live, in-person testing. It must be much better
designed than a live, in-person, moderated test, because there's no
opportunity after it is out there to clarify questions or ask follow-
up questions. Or to actually see or hear what happened, thus
demystifying responses.
- The UI of the remote testing tool must not add a burden for the
participant on top of whatever trouble they're having using the thing
being tested. *That* needs to be tested, too. Otherwise, your results
may be muddled, conflated, or invalid.
- You have to rely on participants being good writers if you ask them
to offer up comments on what they're having problems with. Many who
answer the intercept for remote unmoderated tests simply are not
willing to invest the time. And you have no way to ask them follow-up
questions to clarify.
Dana
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
Dana Chisnell
415.519.1148
dana AT usabilityworks DOT net
www.usabilityworks.net
http://usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/
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