Carlie Huang, Spring 2023
Usability testing is the process of evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users to identify any usability issues or user experience problems. The purpose of usability testing is to improve the overall user satisfaction and effectiveness of the product or service by identifying areas of improvement and providing actionable feedback to the design team. In last week’s heuristic evaluation, I found several several violations of Nielson’s 10 Usability Heuristics within the Google Translate app, including: Lack of error recognition when given an idiom/non-literal phrase, lack of comprehensive help and documentation, and inconsistency when exiting out of different features. However, because an expert’s heuristic evaluation and an actual user’s experience can differ in findings, I’m conducting a usability test to substantiate these usability issues.
This usability test was performed in a minimalist portable test lab; that is, the test was not performed in a formal office setting, but rather in the participant’s own home using online tools on a personal device to conduct and capture the session.
I prepared a Google Form to collect the participant’s responses that included the following sections:
You can find the Google Form I used to collect the participant’s responses here.
You can find the recording of the usability test session here.
Overall, I think the usability test went well: the participant was cooperative and respectful. The session went on for a little longer than expected because the tasks were tricky to figure out. While she did get frustrated at some point, it was never contentious between us; I gently guided her and it felt like we were solving the task together. However, to that end, I think because I know the participant well, I was a little too hands-on and I should have let them lead the conversation more. It’s hard when the moderator themself is personally aattached in some way or the other— in this case, I kind of felt like I wanted to prove that the usability issues I pointed out in the heuristic evaluation were actual issues. Therefore, it was hard to stay neutral. In the future, I definitely want to make sure not to lead the participant in any direction or towards any particular feeling, but rather let them give me their authentic thoughts. Furthermore, there was a slight technological issue in the middle of the session where the phone screen stopped recording briefly. In the future, I would be more cognizant of the technological environment to ensure the session was properly recorded.