Usability Testing Essentials: Ready, Set...Test!

By
Carol Barnum, Director and co–founder of the Usability Center at Southern Polytechnic, Graduate Program Director for MS in Information Design and Communication Program, author of six books and numerous articles on usability, technical communication and related fields

Description
Do you love your mobile phone? Your MP3 player? Your e–book reader? You laptop or tablet PC? There’s a reason for that. Usability.



When usability testing is part of the design and development of products, the results are better products that users want and like. You may be doing testing now or want to help your company get started, but you may not have all the tools to know how to properly prepare, test, analyze, and measure the results across a multitude of cultures, generations, and countries. And you may be facing tight budgets and short timeframes for testing. If this is your situation, this essential handbook gives you a variety of options and strategies for testing in numerous situations.

Usability Testing Essentials presents a practical, step–by–step approach to learning the entire process of planning and conducting a usability test. It also explains how to analyze and apply the results and what to do when confronted with budgetary and time restrictions. This is the ideal book for anyone involved in usability or user–centered design–from students to seasoned professionals.





*Provides comprehensive coverage of all phases of usability testing

*Fully updated four color edition features important usability topics such as international testing, persona creation, remote testing, and accessibility

*Follow–up to Usability Testing and Research (9780205315192, Longman, 2002), winner of the highest–level award from the Society for Technical Communication



Audience:
Usability specialists, user experience researchers, usability analysts, information architects, interaction designers, human factors engineers (analyst, specialist, manager), software/web developers, quality assurance personnel, students in industrial design, HCI, information technology, psychology, computer science, technical communication.



From the back cover:

"What makes so many products so difficult for the average person to use?"Carol Barnum posits this question in her introduction to this book. Too many perfectly functioning products are being returned because they are not usable. Strong usability testing is the key. But what do we do if under a strict budget and time constraints? How do we properly prepare, test, analyze, and measure across a multitude of cultures, generations, and countries? There are many different testing methods and numerous situations in which to test; however, all are grounded in the same basics of usability testing.

Usability Testing Essentials presents a practical, step–by–step approach to learning the entire process of planning and conducting a usability test. It also explains how to analyze and apply the results and what to do when confronted with budgetary and time restrictions. This is the ideal book for anyone involved in usability or user–centered design–from students to seasoned professionals.

About the Author:

Carol teaches a graduate course in usability testing and also works with clients on projects ranging from software, hardware, web applications, web sites, e–learning, and training products. Barnum is well–known internationally, having keynoted and presented at numerous national and international conferences. Her presentation at the first European Usability Professionals conference in London, in conjunction with British HCI, won the "best presenter" award at the conference. She was invited to be interviewed for the UX Pioneers web site (www.uxpioneers.com), among such luminaries as Jakob Nielsen, John Carrol, Ginny Redish, Ben Shneiderman, and Alan Cooper.