Weekend Testing Americas #37: Mobile Usability

Yep, it's that time again, time to get the word out about our next session and what we are going to cover.

One of the things we tried last time, and it seems to great effect, is to do some sessions that are broader reaching, focusing on bigger topics, and giving people a chance to plan for them and to participate. Usually, we keep the sessions kinda' hush hush, so there's no "favoritism" for certain participants, but we decided that, with some topics, there's really no need for any of that.

On Saturday, March 2, 2013, fledgling facilitator Justin Rohrman will be leading us in a discussion and testing session around Usability. The preliminary notes for this session, courtesy of Justin,  are below. If you find them helpful, please let Justin know. Also, if these early bird posts are helping to encourage you to participate in these events, please, let us know that as well :).



Weekend Testing Americas #37: Usability testing On Mobile Devices

Date: March 2, 2013

Time: 10:00 a.m. Pacific, 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Suggested Mission and Charters: Explore the Facebook Mobile interface and specifically test for usability

Assumption: Attendees must have Facebook running in a mobile environment. Native or mobile browser versions are fine.
Topic: LearnabilityPick an area of the app you are not familiar with (pair up however makes sense. Spend some time getting familiar. Discuss your learning experience. How did you learn to use the software? What made the experience difficult? What made the experience easy? What would make the software easier to learn?

Topic: MemorabilityFor your group, describe the part of the software you just learned. Was the functionality easy to recall? why? why not? What would make the software more memorable?

Topic: Error RateDescribe the errors you made while learning. What lead to you making these errors? What helped you to not make errors? What improvements would help reduce user error rate?

Topic: Efficiency Were you able to use the software in an efficient manner? describe what made the product efficient or inefficient for you. How would you improve the efficiency?

Retrospective/Debrief:
What did we learn in this session?
Would anyone describe usability testing in a different way after the hands on exercise
What kinds of tests can you apply when you go back to work
Was this a useful session

References:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

http://www.amazon.com/Donald-A.-Norman/e/B000APP96A/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3?qid=1360688055&sr=1-3