“Controlled settings involving users” Evaluation Method

“Controlled settings involving users” Evaluation Method

“Controlled settings involving users (examples are laboratories and living labs): users’ activities are controlled in order to test hypotheses and measure or observe certain behaviors. The main methods are usability testing and experiments.”(Preece, Yvonne, & Sharp, 2015)

Reflection on the Topic

1.      This type of testing is mainly for research about a topic, which usually have expectations going with it. Users are not free to do whatever they want, but instead being controlled to perform specific tasks. This is usually used for technology testing (Preece et al., 2015). Data collected will be used to interpret and make update about products.

2.      “working group attempted to answer some baseline questions: What can and cannot be customized in the new interface? How, and according to what timeline, should we introduce the new interface to our library patrons? What methods could be used to assess the new interface?”(Galbreath, Johnson, & Hvizdak, 2018)

3.       

A test of Washington State University about user usability conducted in controlled user environment (Galbreath, Johnson, & Hvizdak, 2018) 

 

My Thought

“A primary motivation was to evaluate how real families would respond and adapt to such a setup, over a period of several months.”

“Experiments are typically conducted in research labs in universities or industry to test hypotheses. They are the most controlled setting, where researchers try to remove any extraneous variables that may interfere with the participant's performance. The reason for this is so that they can reliably say that the findings arising from the experiment are due to the particular interface feature being measured. For example, an experiment comparing which is the best way for users to enter text when using a tablet interface would control all other”

(Preece et al., 2015)

Reference List

Galbreath, B. L., Johnson, C., & Hvizdak, E. (2018). Primo New User Interface: Usability Testing and Local Customizations Implemented in Response. Information Technology & Libraries, 37(2), 10–35. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v37i2.10191

Preece, J., Yvonne, R., & Sharp, H. (2015). INTERACTION DESIGN: Beyond human-computer interaction (4th ed.). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.