Results from Round 1 UI Options user testing

[Daphne Ogle]

Hi Alison,

Just a note on the tasks.  They may be a bit leading.  I think it's  
usually better to ask the user to complete a goal, like "edit the  
appearance of X to meet your needs" or "show me how you would change  
the interface settings to make if more comfortable for you", rather  
then stepping them through an activity.  So, for example, you might  
not want to say "you decide to save them" because you'll miss whether  
they realize they have to do an explicit save.  And actually, a rule  
of thumb is never to use a term that is on the interface so my  
suggestion of "appearance" needs a different word too.  The current  
questions should uncover specific interaction issues but won't uncover  
much about how UI Options conceptually works for users.   What are the  
questions they will come to it with and can they accomplish those?

Hope that's helpful.  If not, feel free to ignore :).

-Daphne

On Jul 15, 2009, at 12:42 PM, Alison Benjamin wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Two Zoom Text screen magnifier users came to the ATRC to play with UI
> Options today.
>
> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/User+Interface+Options+-+Round+1+protocol
>
> Here is a summary of the results:
>
> * "Edit Appearance" button is hard to for users to locate the first
> time & re-locate after closing the UI Options dialog
> * Once the UI Options dialog is opened, users have an easy time making
> and previewing their changes, ex: changing font style, size.
> * It wasn't always clear what it meant to choose or tweak a particular
> UI Option. For example, it could be clearer what it means to choose
> "Yes" or "No" to Background images.
> * At some points both users tried to use browser features to make
> changes to the UI of the Webpage.
> * Follow-up work needs to be done to determine why (1) UI Options page
> wouldn't load correctly (no text appears) in IE 8 with Zoom Text
> running, and (2) why using FF3 it stopped working during tasks 5 & 6
> with User 1 (see Interaction Notes). Both problems could have been due
> to the computer we were using for testing, the AT, or the browser.
>
> I am also looking for feedback on the questions I was using for
> task-based testing:
> http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/User+Interface+Options+-+Round+1+protocol
>
> Thanks,
> Alison
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Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
daphne at media.berkeley.edu
cell (925)348-4372