Role:
Researcher
Date:
Spring 2022
Problem
Mercer University’s Technical Communication department wanted to see what prospective students looked at when they read Technical Communications’ M.S. and B.S. posters.
Solution
- Usability test
Skills
- Gaze Point Analysis and GazePoint Control-hard
- Usability tests and research guided by CITI Training-soft
Overview of the Usability Test Process
- Create consent forms, pre-and post-test questionnaires through Google Forms, and recruitment e-mail.
- Create Plans and Protocols document to explain the A-B usability test procedures.
- Recruited participants from Dr. Gallagher’s TCO 341 class and set up a time with them for the usability test.
- Mercer students looked at two Mercer University recruitment posters for the M.S. and B.S. program.
I used Gaze Point Analysis, Gaze Point Control, and guided prompts to track participants’ eye movements. - After the usability test, participants filled out the post-test questionnaire.
- After a week of testing, I analyzed the Google Forms and the videos from GazePoint Analysis.
Reflection
I applied the methodologies of usability testing to discover where and why students look at recruitment posters. The project helped me learn a new software-Gazepoint-that I will apply in my UX career field in the future.
I appreciated the work UX Researchers do through this project because I learned how much patience one needs when doing a usability study.
Steps to Solve/Tools (in-depth)
- Created interview informed consent forms, recruitment emails, recruitment script, study description, and a sign-up sheet to recruit participants
- Created post-survey form (through Google Forms) that includes demographic information, which poster gave them the best experience, and ranker scale questions that ask about the text, image, and navigation designs
- Calibrated and tracked their eye movements through Gazepoint Analysis and Gazepoint Control during usability tests. I asked users to do the following tasks:
- Look at the part of the poster that most interests you.
- Look at the part of the poster that most confuses you.
- Using your eyes, slowly draw a map of your experience of the poster from start to finish.
- Look at the most attractive part of the design.
- Look at the ugliest part of the design.
- Analyzed data from each participant through different visualization patterns-Fixation Map, Heat Map, Opacity Map, and Bee Swarm- in Gazepoint Analysis
- Created a figure of AOI’s (Areas of Interest) for the B.S. and M.S. Mercer recruitment posters through Adobe InDesign
- Created a written report (as a memo) of the results from the A-B Testing and Results project
Report
Juliana hawkinson 