Getting Ready for the User Testing!

its now time that we started to get organised for the user testing task. i have already decided WHERE i am going to do the testing, now its just a matter of deciding what tools i am going to use to record the testing.

Screen Capture:
The most important thing to take from the user testing is footage of them actually navigating the website. this is undertaken using whats known as Screen capture, or screen recording software. originally i was intending to use a software tool known as FRAPS to capture my video, but it turns out that FRAPS is only able to capture windowed 3d footage (such as a video game) rather than the desktop as a whole. because of this i have had to move onto using Ashampoo Snap. This tool captures the desktop at full resolution, and outputs the footage into .WMV format.

Audio:
More important than a camcorder capture of the user undertaking the task, is to capture the audio. Users will explain their actions as they navigate through the website, and by capturing the audio and running alongside the screen capture footage, we will be able to see where, and to some levels, why users take certian navigation routes through the website.
Audio capture will be taken through the use of a Skype Headphone/Mic Headset, and the audio will be outputted and stored in .MP3 format.

My Paper Prototypes

at home i just thought i would kick together a basic paper protoype. i decided to make a quick 3 button drop down selection interface for an online E-Commerce store.

In the first picture, you can see what each of the menus look like when fully extended (this would happen when you hover the mouse over the button) and the second image shows how a button would normally look when not hovered over (in this case the 'Console Accessories' menu is minimised)

In Lecture Paper Prototyping

Today we went over how to create our own paper prototypes. it would seem that the trick with creating good paper protoypes is to create SIMPLE paper prototypes. trying to fit too much information onto one page, one menu or one form will only end up causing problems later on, and is a good way of telling you that if your finding it hard to navigate at this stage, you may run into problems when working on the real thing. I will take a shot at creating my own personal paper prototype in the next day or two, and upload it to the blog.

Paper Prototyping - Continued

Just a little more on paper protoyping.

while most approaches to paper protyping rely on no more than a few bits of a4 paper and a pen, you can create quite professional paper prototypes if you just spend a little more time. this video shows how an E-Commerce website has been paper prototyped, but by printing off some simple page designs, have created a paper prototype with a proffessional finish that gives you a really good idea of what the final website should look and function like.

Paper Prototyping!

Today we have been looking at some of the approaches towards initially developing User Interface designs. it looks at the starting blocks on which you develop an interface layout before you even start any hard coding.

Paper prototyping!
The idea behind paper protyping is that you can spend only minutes developing a basic user interface layout rather than spend hours working on complex computer mockups. paper prototypes can be used for every concievable kind of user interface, from computer software, to websites, to mobile/pda appications, even to kiosk and burger bar interactive menus!

Describing this in words could take a while, so why not look at videos instead :) the video below shows h0w a group of designers have quickly put together a paper protoype of a bit of PDA software that allows you to meet other university students around campus.

Usability Gantt Chart

Well its a little late but i have finished putting together a basic Gantt chart for how i want to go about performing all this usablity testing.



ive broken up the overall assignment into about a dozen tasks, and spread the workload over several weeks, using lecture dates (tuesdays and thursdays) as guide markers.