Providing Usability Testing: Countering Student Assumptions through the “Oh!” Experience
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Providing Usability Testing: Countering Student Assumptions through the “Oh!” Experience

Submitted By: Henson
Scheduled For: Tuesday @ 2:00 PM in Water Oaks I
Session Type: Session - Presentation (includes keynote & business mtg)
Target Audience: IS/IT faculty teaching interaction design, analysis and design or programming

Abstract:

Usability testing, whether in a research or practitioner setting, is invaluable in user-centered interaction design and development; thus, interaction design students benefit from applying the technique. Students in programming classes and analysis and design classes can also benefit from usability testing in following a complete prototyping cycle as well as seeing the user’s affective response. The latter oft times reveals to students through personal experience that their assumptions about users and user requirements are incorrect and that their personal biases can result in a poor IT solution.

Usability testing facilities can be complex and costly, but simple and inexpensive alternatives exist. This paper will provide an overview of a usability testing facility at one university, identify the requirements for simple usability testing and discuss practical options in providing a usability testing facility for students.

Kerry Henson is an Assistant Professor of CIS at the University of Central Missouri where he teaches a variety of courses including interaction design, networking, software engineering and COBOL. His research interests include interaction design, cognitive issues related to information systems and web-based development. He obtained a PhD in information systems from the University of North Texas.