Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older Adults - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older Adults

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Recruiting Tips ... Planning and Preparation Tips ... Testing Tips ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older Adults


1
Tips for Conducting Usability Studies with Older
Adults
  • Thomas S. Tullis, Ph.D.
  • Senior Vice President
  • Human Interface Design
  • Fidelity Investments
  • tom.tullis_at_fmr.com

Seminar on Older Users and the Web GSA
AARP Washington, DC July 20, 2004
2
Usability Lab at Fidelity
3
Usability Tests with Older Adults
Over the past 3 years, weve conducted usability
sessions with about 150 people 50 or older.
Oldest participant 85 Wide range of Web skills
4
Tips for Testing with Older Users
  • Recruiting
  • Planning and Preparation
  • Testing
  • Participatory design (FIDO)

5
Recruiting Tips
  • If you care about level of web expertise, may
    need to develop better screening criteria
  • Frequency of web use
  • How long theyve been using the web
  • Variety of sites visited
  • Variety of tasks performed (email, purchasing,
    etc)
  • How they learned to use the web
  • Those who retired before the web was common in
    the workplace will tend to have less web
    expertise, even if they use it every day.

6
Recruiting Tips
  • Consider networking for recruiting
  • e.g., family and friends, contacts, etc
  • Older adults seem less likely to respond to cold
    call requests to participate
  • Logistics of getting to the test
  • Consider conducting it at a Senior Center.
  • Consider special arrangements for getting to a
    Usability Lab.
  • Let them bring their spouse or a friend.
  • Make sure all aspects of the test are described
    before-hand (e.g., videotaping).

7
Planning and Preparation Tips
  • Consider using co-discovery (paired users)
  • Especially appropriate for husband and wife
  • Be prepared for them to show up for the test
    early!
  • Schedule more time for a session than you would
    with younger users.
  • For pre-test briefing
  • For actual testing
  • For post-test debriefing

8
Planning and Preparation Tips
  • Learn as much about their normal computer
    environment as possible and try to replicate it,
    e.g.
  • Operating system
  • Browser
  • Monitor size
  • Screen resolution
  • Special keyboard characteristics (e.g., larger
    keys)
  • Mouse type (e.g., scroll wheel or not)

9
Testing Tips
  • If you normally moderate the study from another
    room, consider moderating from the same room as
    the user.
  • Puts the user more at ease.
  • Works better for users with hearing impairments.
  • Some older users have an even greater tendency to
    attribute difficulties they encounter to
    themselves.
  • Watch for this and be prepared to deal with it.

10
Testing Tips
  • Be particularly careful about using web or
    technical jargon in your
  • Task descriptions
  • Interaction with the user
  • Some terms you might not think of as jargon
  • Home
  • Login
  • Window

11
Participatory Design Tips
  • A technique that has worked well for us to
    involve older adults in the user-centered design
    process
  • FIDO Freehand Interactive Design Offline
  • For details, see paper presented at UPA 2004
  • Donna Tedesco, Ann Chadwick-Dias, Tom Tullis
    (2004). Freehand Interactive Design Offline
    (FIDO) A New Methodology for Participatory
    Design.
  • Contact donna.tedesco_at_fidelity.com.

12
The FIDO Technique
  • Give users a set of web-page components, or
    building blocks, printed on magnetic paper.
  • Ask them to build their own page(s).

13
Our Study Using FIDO
  • Took screen shots of the home pages of
    Fidelity.com plus five of our competitors.
  • Anonymized them (removed references to company
    names, etc).

14
Our Study Using FIDO
  • Printed the screen-shots (in grayscale) on
    magnetic-backed paper.
  • Laminated them.
  • Cut them into their components (abt 130).

15
Presented the Elements to Users
16
Simulated Browser Window
Asked users to build their ideal financial
services homepage.
17
A Sample Session
18
Data Collection
Took digital photos of the pages built.
Also took digital photos under black light to
facilitate documenting the element IDs!
19
Sample Pages Built
20
Advantages of FIDO
  • Less anxiety-producing than interacting with a
    real system, especially for older adults.
  • Fun and interactive!
  • Use as much space as you need.
  • Can be done as a group exercise.
  • Users could be allowed to add their own content.
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