Project Evaluation

User testing is a crucial element of good web design. We will not have time to explore it in detail this semester (see our HCI and user experience courses), but even a little evaluation can be very instructive. In your projects, you will include evaluation by:

• Finding participants. They should not be students in our class, and should ideally be someone who might actually use your tool some day. Your client may be able to introduce you to such a person.
• Giving them some tasks. Identify the problems users will solve with your tool, write them down, and give a list of them to your participants.
• Recording them while they perform it. Ask them to talk aloud while they perform the task, and record them, with your phone for example. 
• Reflect on your results. What were your participants' points of difficulty? Were any of them unanticipated? How could you improve your tool to remove them? Include short excerpts of your recording in your presentations and project deliverables.