[ubuntu-uk] A Possible Experiment

[Matthew Wild]

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Lucy <lucybridges at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 08/05/2008, Matt Daubney <daubers at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > Hey all,
>  >
>  >  I brought this up on the IRC channel earlier and thought I'd put it to a
>  >  wider audience.
>  [snip]
>  >  The idea is generally that we create some tasks..
>  [snip]

Usability testing is nothing new. I believe the GNOME project (which
tends to be quite hot on usability) does this, see
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/usertesting.html

I do agree this needs to be done more. In such tests that I have seen
done, recording of the screen and the user's face is done
simultaneously. Often notes are often taken during the process, as the
user is asked to perform a task, and think aloud about what they are
doing or looking for.

It would take a bit of setting up, but would be well worth the effort.

Matthew.