FAQ page

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

On Jul 28, 2006, at 4:51 AM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> ...
> I would say that Ubuntu (and therefore the Ubuntu website) is big 
> enough
> to start considering doing user testing in this regard. Sometimes 
> giving
> users a simple task and then watching (and keeping your mouth shut) as
> they try to achieve it reveals unexpected things. For example, things 
> we
> think are broken may work fine, and things we like may be
> non-functional.

Definitely! (I've been lobbying for user testing of Launchpad for a 
while.)

> I have done a fair amount of usability testing and can say that three 
> 20
> min user sessions can produce more relevant results than hours of
> meetings and discussion.

I can believe that.

> Have we yet done any website usability testing?

Not as far as I know. Ubuntu still has mostly developer-centered design 
(exhibit A: <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeatureSpecifications>). We have a 
long way to go.

> We're planning a facelift shortly (not decided how major this will be) 
> and I wonder if we should consider doing this as part of the process.

Being scattered worldwide makes it hard to organize such testing. But 
if we plan the process before November, we could pull random people off 
the street at the next Developer Summit (or even from the community, 
depending on what prior skill level we want to sample), and get through 
a few rapid design iterations.

> I have also made arrangements to get access to the website server logs
> so that I can start analyzing the success rate of searches, so maybe we
> could also look at that data to find how users click through the sites.
> That too can be phenomenally revealing.
> ...

Yes, we're starting to do that for Launchpad too. :-)

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/