This looks awesome, Ilya. Really well thought out plan. Let me know what I can do to help.
On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Ilya Haykinson <[email protected]> wrote: > All, > > I wanted to run the following by you -- this is my proposed approach for > research for the Maverick cycle. Please comment as soon as possible, as I'd > like to lock to an approach rather soon. > > Usability Research > Research is a key value for UMP. To adhere to this value, we will undertake > one or more research projects with every release cycle, in order to better > understand our userbase and to improve our products. > Maverick Cycle Research > During the Maverick cycle, we will conduct a series of *usability > interviews* aimed at improving the chapters of our manual devoted to > operating system installation, and run a *survey* aimed at understanding > common computer tasks with which users may need some help. > Usability Interviews > During the Maverick cycle, our goal for interviews is to understand the > effectiveness of the installation instructions contained in *Getting > Started With Ubuntu*. We are trying to answer the following research > questions: > > > - Are the instructions in our manual sufficiently helpful for new users > attempting to install Ubuntu for the first time? > - How can we improve our installation instructions for new Ubuntu > users? > > > More specifically, we will interview users from our target audience and > observe them as they follow our manual and perform an Ubuntu installation. > To avoid bias stemming from prior knowledge of Ubuntu (which may skew > research results), we will attempt to recruit two groups of users: 1) users > without Ubuntu experience who do not express a desire to switch to Ubuntu, > and 2) users who have some Ubuntu experience but who do not use Ubuntu as > their primary operating environment. > Participants > We will interview a total of 10 Ubuntu users, most likely in the Los > Angeles area, for approximately 90 minutes. In order to compensate > participants for their time, we will run a crowdfunding campaign aimed at > creating a fund of $600-800 to be distributed amongst the ten participants > (a common rate for studies). We will video-record each usability session and > present a summary of the research to UMP. All video recordings and other > research results will be licensed using CC-BY 3.0 and posted online. > Timing > Our team will finalize the design of the usability test by the end of May > 2010; at this point, we will begin recruiting participants. Recruiting will > cease by June 6, and usability testing will occur no late than two weeks > after this deadline. > > SurveysOur survey goal for the cycle is to understand our target > audience's typical approaches to everyday computing on home desktop or > personal laptop computers; this way, we can help our team prioritize > improvements and focus for our documentation products. We will develop and > administer a survey asking questions related to demographics, technical > expertise, lifestyle, computer use. Subsequently, we will analyze the > results in segments after grouping survey responses by operating system > choice and other factors. We will present research results to UMP. Could > this section also include clearly articulated research questions, as the > first section does? -Bryan Behrenshausen 5/21/10 3:29 PM Respondents > We will recruit respondents using multiple channels including direct user > outreach (craigslist, flyers, etc), email promotion (mailing lists, etc), > and social media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, forums, etc). By participating > in the study, respondents will earn a chance to win $100 delivered via a > secure payment method (PayPal, Western Union, etc). As the study will be > crowdfunded, the cost of prize delivery will be subtracted from the prize > itself. > Timing > Agree on course of action > June 8 > Finish test design > June 22 > Ensure funding > June 25 > Recruiting for test > June 18 - 25 > Test administration > June 26 - 27 > Test results > July 4 > Finish survey design > July 9 > Survey administration > July 10 - 18 > Survey results > July 22 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > -- Benjamin Humphrey interesting.co.nz
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