Tagging: Usability

1. What people say and do: a visual metaphor

   Oh hi, don’t mind me, I’m just going to park this big red bus here as a visual metaphor to remind us that, when usability testing, to **focus on what people do** *rather than what they say*.

   

2. The 4 questions to ask in a cognitive walkthrough

   Dr. David Travis outlines the 4 questions to ask during a cognitive walkthrough and gives some useful real-world relatable examples.

   The cognitive walkthrough is a formalised way of imagining people’s thoughts and actions when they use an interface for the first time.

   4 questions during a cognitive walkthrough

   1. Will the customer realistically be trying to do this action?
   2. Is the control for the action visible?
   3. Is there a strong url between the control and the action?
   4. Is feedback appropriate?

3. How to Conduct a Cognitive Walkthrough

   IXD Foundation overview of the cognitive walkthrough method.

   If given a choice – most users prefer to do things to learn a product rather than to read a manual or follow a set of instructions.

   Four questions during a cognitive walkthrough:

   Blackmon, Polson, et al. in 2002 in their paper “Cognitive walkthrough for the Web”

   1. Will the user try and achieve the right outcome?
   2. Will the user notice that the correct action is available to them?
   3. Will the user associate the correct action with the outcome they expect to achieve?
   4. If the correct action is performed; will the user see that progress is being made towards their intended outcome?

   How cognitive walkthroughs differ from heuristic evaluation.

   • Cognitive walkthroughs - goal and task focused
   • Heuristic evaluation - focus on entire product

4. Cognitive Walkthroughs

   Brad Dalrymple gives an overview of the cognitive walkthrough method and shares a useful test spreadsheet template.

   Steps

   1. Identify the user goal you want to examine
   2. Identify the tasks you must complete to accomplish that goal
   3. Document the experience while completing the tasks

   Cognitive walkthrough questions:

   • Will users understand how to start the task?
   • Are the controls conspicuous?
   • Will users know the control is the correct one?
   • Was there feedback to indicate you completed (or did not complete) the task?
   • Was there feedback to indicate you completed (or did not complete) the task?

5. 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

   @jakobnielsen’s 10 usability heuristics guidelines for interaction design.

6. @asktog’s thorough revised and expanded first principles of interaction design.

7. Usability Heuristics for Bots

   A great read by @thekevinscott on applying Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics to chatbot design. Includes a handful of examples too.