Contextual factors in user experience evaluation
To ensure the development of user-friendly products, it is important to guarantee that the needs and limitations of the user are taken into account throughout the whole development process. This “user-centred” approach is widely accepted in product design and embodies three main principles of design: a) early focus on users and tasks, b) empirical measurement, and c) iterative design. This implies that designers should bear the end user in mind throughout the whole design process. To do so, the product or simulations and prototypes of it is evaluated by users who carry out real tasks in a usability test while their performance and reactions to the product are observed, recorded, and analysed empirically.
The simulation of the product usage in a usability test may differ considerably from the scenario of its real use: observers and a camera are present, the product is simulated by a prototype, and the test user might differ from the end user of the product (e.g. with regard to expertise, motivation or culture). Such contextual factors may represent an important issue for the validity of usability tests, since there is no guarantee that effects detected in such an experimental condition prove to be the same in a real life context. Given the significance of usability testing for product development, it is important for usability practitioners to be aware of these issues and to know in detail how specific contextual factors of usability tests influence its outcomes. Awareness of such influencing factors may provide indications about the adequate interpretation of usability test results and may help to plan and conduct the usability evaluation.
Until now however, only little is known about the influence of contextual factors in usability tests on their outcomes. This project is aimed at investigating and analysing the effect of different contextual factors on usability test outcomes. Furthermore, it aims to give recommendations to usability practitioners about the design and organisation of usability tests as well as about the interpretation of their results. Specific research questions in this context are: How does the social context in product usage (e.g. the opinion of others, online reviews etc.) influence our own evaluation of a product? How does design aesthetics influence the usage behaviour and performance measures in usability tests? How does the influence of aesthetics on usability measures change over time? What are useful tools to increase objectivity and reliability of usability evaluations (reduce the ‘evaluator effect’)? Or, how does the use of guidelines for accessibility influence the results of usability evaluations?
Bachelor and Master Theses conducted on this topic
- Briguet, Dylan (2018). Social influence in HCI: A waiting room experiment. Does the valence of verbal feedback influence overall subjects’ evaluation in usability tests?
- Schomer, Luc (2017). The evaluator effect in usability testing: Moving observation methods into the spotlight.
- Schorno, Déborah (2017). Should Google Play include an attitude scale and a spellchecker before letting users post their opinion? How do the valence and the quality of online reviews influence User Experience?
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