[WG: Sakai QA] [Building Sakai] [DG: User Experience] QA and user testing

[David Haines]

It would be good to be completely clear here about the purpose of this  
review in the context of the 2.7 release: Is the usability review a  
part of the decision about accepting the changes into the release, or  
is it to collect information that could improve documentation and  
inform future changes?

I believe it is the second, but I'd like to be sure I'm not just  
jumping to that conclusion.

- Dave


David Haines
CTools Developer
Digital Media Commons
University of Michigan
dlhaines at umich.edu



On Jul 28, 2009, at 12:52 PM, Clay Fenlason wrote:

> Yes, to be clear, I wasn't imagining changing the design, and even
> smoothing changes would I think have to be very minor - I think all
> would agree that trying to redesign during QA would be bad practice
> for a variety of reasons.  What's more, "comments on the changes" was
> not what I would hope to get from the UX group.  I would be looking
> for systematic user testing with an analysis of results appropriate to
> expertise in the discipline.  It's not going to just be designers
> weighing in with their opinions, or I will have considered it a
> failure.
>
> The main aim is to bring some heft to a claim in the release notes
> that we have Forums UI improvements. I'm hoping that our product
> releases have clear rationales as a general rule - and demonstrated
> results - for the changes they introduce.  It seems only proper for
> our QA process to weigh a piece of work on relevant metrics of
> success, and for a UX improvement something will be missed if we only
> look at technical failures, while at the same time I think it could
> also represent an opportunity for our UX community to ground itself in
> best practices in this area, as well as educate the rest of the
> community on how to do this work well (i.e. so that there is
> documentation that can be used by development teams for their projects
> in future).
>
> ~Clay
>
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:59 AM, David Haines<dlhaines at umich.edu>  
> wrote:
>> We're fully open to comments on the changes, but Michigan is unlikely
>> to find resources to be able to modify the current scope of the
>> modifications beyond smoothing rough edges.  User testing data would
>> certainly inform any future set of changes.
>>
>> Is there a timeline for getting feedback? It would be good to move  
>> the
>> process along quickly (but not hastily).
>>
>> - Dave
>>
>> David Haines
>> CTools Developer
>> Digital Media Commons
>> University of Michigan
>> dlhaines at umich.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 27, 2009, at 1:40 PM, Clay Fenlason wrote:
>>
>>> I was reviewing the excellent documentation for a set of Forums UI
>>> changes (see http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/EoLgAw), and it
>>> reminded me of an old idea. We tend to test for technical failure
>>> foremost, but the main claim of the Forums UI work is that it  
>>> improves
>>> usability. It would seem to me sound QA practice to test this, using
>>> community expertise in good user testing practice.  Could this be an
>>> area where the UX group and QA WG could join forces? Would anyone  
>>> like
>>> to take a look at proposed 2.7 changes that have a clear UI impact  
>>> and
>>> conduct reviews or testing along these lines?
>>>
>>> There's something that may feel a little misplaced in vetting a  
>>> design
>>> when development has been essentially completed, I know, but I think
>>> it would help the community to have strong confirmation of the
>>> imagined benefits, and if there are still small rough edges to  
>>> smooth
>>> over it may not be too late to address, say, CSS and HTML during QA.
>>>
>>> ~Clay
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