bolt | peters, sponsor of the Remote Usability blog, pointed me to the first part of a two part series at MarketingProfs with info on free and cheap usability tools. The second part is also available. The series is aimed at marketers, and so contains some rudimentary discussions of what usability is and how you do it. Nonetheless, it is worth a read for the links.

Labels: methods, tools

The temptation to skip lab or field testing in favor of unmoderated remote usability testing is great; it can save hundreds or thousands of dollars and hours of time. But when is this type of testing actually viable? Arthur Moan offers a list of times when doing unmoderated remote testing is called for, and it not all the time.

Labels: methods, tools

When I was at Microsoft, I had to use Project to manage the schedules for documentation projects; it was free and the company standard. After I left, however, I found Project to be overkill for many things I was working on. I am also cheap. Turns out, there are now lots of great task and project management tools in the cloud; most have a free version that limits the number of projects and people you can work with. All are designed for collaboration, with access by several people and blogs, wikis, and even Web meetings among the features. Some of these require you to sign up for a subscription version, of course.

If you want a list of the best ones out there, check out this listing. I am trying ProWorkFlow, Nozbe, and CentralDesktop.

Labels: collaboration, methods

New to usability? Wondering what the secret to facilitating a user test might be? Make it fun to learn with a comic book guide created by UserFocus, a consultancy. Reading this comic will not make you Super Moderator and qualify you for the special tights and cap, but it is bound to improve your approach to working one-on-one with a usability participant.

Labels: methods, publications

Everything about doing good lab or observation usability studies can be learned by a conscientious student of the practice, but the hardest to learn might be interacting with the participant. Garry Higgins, editor of UserFocus (A UK newsletter) offers his tips for being a good moderator - starting with listening.

Labels: methods

In addition to keywords, I have added a long list of Web sites to be search in our Google custom search. I welcome your suggestions for other sites to include.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UXM/
http://feeds.feedburner.com/uselog
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/
http://www.cooper.com/insights/journal_of_design
http://experiencedynamics.blogs.com/
http://tc.eserver.org/
http://findability.org
http://feeds.feedburner.com/UserExperienceDesign
http://feeds.feedburner.com/remote_research
http://remote.com/
http://boltpeters.com/blog/
http://www.thinkflowinteractive.com
http://ui-patterns.com/
http://www.professionals.org
http://www.counts.com/
http://feeds.usernomics.com
http://useit.com/alertbox
http://www.boxesandarrows.com
http://www.boxesandarrows.com
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/volumes/4/issue_3/body_of_knowledge.htm
http://www.firstmonday.org
http://www.useit.com/alertbox
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library
http://www.guiguide.com/
http://www.idp.mdh.se/forskning/infodesign
http://www.internettg.org
http://webword.com
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/story/story_2619.html
http://www.uiweb.com
http://www.webdesignpractices.com/
http://www.boxesandarrows.com
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/volumes/4/issue_3/body_of_knowledge.htm
http://www.juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.asp#result
http://usability.gov
http://www.webdesignpractices.com/

Labels: methods, searching

While there is lots of research and analysis time spent on the Web or in libraries, most usability specialists agree that there is nothing like going into peeping Tom mode to really learn how users act and think.

While browsing Boxes and Arrows just now, I rediscovered this 2004 review of the Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research

I had almost forgotten it is on my bookshelf. It has become a textbook at some colleges, so I feel safe in recommending it to anyone who is new to usability work.

Labels: methods, tools

When you are working on user research that involves people from all over the world, as I am right now, scheduling means you need to know your time zones.

To help with that, I turn to the Meeting Planner page at time and date.com.

Pick a date, enter your own location, and then pick up to four cities in the world, and you get a timetable showing what time it is for everyone you want to contact.

But what if all you have as a phone number? How do you know what country that phone number is in?

Aha! If the phone number begins with the country code (which means you need to remember to ask people to give you that), then you can find out which country using this. Reverse look up for country code 255 That is how I found out this participant is in Tanzania.

Put to two together, and I am going to be conducting a remote usability session at 5 am Pacific Standard Time with a dude in Tanzania who is about ready to go home for the day.

Labels: methods, tools

Michael Hawley looks at better ways to use card sorting when designing the information architecture of an information-rich site. Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies :: UXmatters

Labels: methods

You have seen this movie. A new product is coming out and someone finally decides they ought to find out if there are any usability issues. Oh, and the product launches in four weeks.

How do you conduct valid user observation testing on such a short time line? Paul Nuschke offers an approach that he uses in a two-part article on Boxes and Arrows called Quick Turnaround Usability Testing.

Labels: methods

If you create online tutorials or training courses, this article in the ACM e-learning magazine should interest you. eLearn: In Depth Tutorials - Usability and E-learning

Earlier tutorials should also be useful:
eLearn: In Depth Tutorials - What Is "Usable" e-Learning?

eLearn: In Depth Tutorials - Usability, User Experience, and Learner Experience

Labels: methods

It depends. :-) That answer drives clients crazy, doesn't it? But the practice of usability is all about context; there is never just one method that works for every situation.

Christian Rohrer, a Jakob Nielsen associate, lays out a great method for determining with usability methods are most useful for uncovering what kind of information in the latest Alert Box, When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods.

When the "product" you are testing is documentation or another technical communication product, there are several methods available that are not listed in Rohrer's article. I suspect the Norman Nielsen Group is seldom asked to test documentation.

Most of us in UUX, however, are focused on documentation and other communication products. Because of this, David Dick, Assistant UUX Manager and Chauncey Wilson are planning an STC conference progression focused on usability methods for testing documentation.

Webmaster Cheryl St. Charles and I are also working on a usability resource list with a focus on documentation usability. We hope to make that available before the end of 2008.

Labels: methods