In this third installment of  ”Building a Great Usability Lab” we discuss the user’s perception of the testing environment and their experience in that environment.  The user’s experience within the environment is just as important as their experience with the product being tested. You should design your testing environment so that it is approachable and flexible.   An environment that is unfamiliar to the participants can be unwelcoming and uncomfortable.  Ensuring that your setup is flexible and easy to manage will help minimize frustration in both participants and testers. While all of these suggestions may not be possible, use what you can to improve your studies, and make your participants more comfortable.

Approachable

The testing environment should seem familiar to the participants. This can be tough when your participants range from elementary school kids to upscale financial advisers, but it can be done.

Have a variety of seating options available including:

• standard chairs that support large people (300 lbs.) and that are adjustable for height.
• smaller seats and tables for smaller people.
• adjustable height tables for additional participant flexibility, such as for those in wheelchairs.

Overall the environment should be welcoming and comfortable without being too casual.

Design the room so that cameras and sound recording devices are not overwhelming. Use smaller cameras and sound recording devices. Mounted cameras can work well, and you can try hiding them (though a camera poking out of an oddly placed plant is not hidden).

Take care not to place mirrored glass  in the participants line of vision or in a distracting place.  The best way to avoid their line of vision is by having them enter the room through a door on the same side of the room as the mirrored glass.   They are unlikely to look behind them as they enter.

During testing, the participant’s side should be visible through the glass so that observers can still see facial expressions, but without having to worry about it being distracting to the participant.

Once the proper tone is set and the test has begun it is unlikely that these kinds of environmental factors will be disruptive.  However, the environment should be created to minimize the possibility and effect of distraction.

Flexible

Usability testing setups often vary between tests.  Knowing as much as possible ahead of time  about the types of studies you will be conducting will help you to build a lab that makes your tests a pleasant experience.

The three most important things that will make your lab flexible are having:

1. accessible hardware for adding and removing devices;
2. appropriate permissions on the lab computers that will allow installation of software and adjustment of settings
3. a technology person available at the beginning of each study and during the studies, should they be needed.

Allowing (and encouraging) participants to use the technologies they are familiar with will increase the accuracy of your usability testing.  Designing your desk and cable management setup to facilitate these things can be critical.  It is also very important to identify changes to the “standard” configuration that are needed BEFORE the usability study is scheduled to begin.

Having a flexible technology base can also be very helpful in creating a hardware/software setup that is familiar to the user.  For instance, when testing with people who work in your state government office, we would not recommend using the new 30″ cinema display.  The computer should look and act like other computers the participant has interacted with (same operating system, similar monitor/keyboard layout).

The effect that standard keyboards and mice can have on the environment should not be overlooked.  Participants often will set expectations based on the environment and can be unintentionally influenced.  This is especially true in eye-tracking studies,  and you should consider using a system like Tobii, which tries to looks like a regular monitor.

Creating a lab that is approachable and flexible for both the participants and your team, gives you the best opportunity to conduct meaningful studies with minimal frustration.

In previous entries the usability lab room setup was discussed as well as the issues of noise and interruption control.

What a great week for usability! The World Usability Day kickoff this year was in Shanghai, China at the beginning of the User Friendly 2009 conference. That event was followed (and preceded) by events in 42 countries with over 130 events this past Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009.

I attended a great event in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted by NEOUPA (North Eastern Ohio Chapter of the UPA – follow them on Twitter @NEOUPA). Excellent speakers, interesting exhibits and at the bookstore I was able to pick up a copy of User Experience Re-Mastered: Your Guide to Getting the Right Design Edited by Chauncey Wilson. I’m still getting into it, but it already looks like it will be a classic I will recommend to those new to the field.

About World Usability Day

World Usability Day (WUD)was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 200 events are organized in over 43 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development and practice.

Web developer Joshua Smith and I (Carol Smith) paired up to present on Usability & Utility: Improve the User Experience at PodCamp Ohio today. This is the second time we’ve had the pleasure of presenting together and we were able to freshen up the material quite a bit in the interim.

We presented to about 40 people, many of whom participated in a lively conversation. Those are the best kinds of presentations!

You can download a PDF of the slides at Midwest Research, LLC.

The presentation included a brief introduction to usability and user experience, including a description the user’s experience from functional, emotional, sensorial and social points of view. There will be a separate blog detailing these soon.

This is the second entry in the Building a Great Usability Lab series. Properly controlling noise and interruptions (mentioned in the previous entry) are integral to a great usability lab. The design of the lab space can help or hinder your ability to control these distractions.

How Many Rooms Should a Usability Lab Have?

We recommend three separate rooms. Room 1 is for participants and the facilitator, Room 2 is for key observers and a moderator if needed, and Room 3 is for stakeholders and additional observers. These rooms should have noise control and not be located in a busy portion of the building where interruptions may be more likely. The rooms should be in a row, side-to-side with Room 2 (observers and moderator) in the middle.

This layout allows for maximum control (reduction of distractions) and flexibility in how the space is to be used.

Room 1: Participants and Facilitator

This room should be easy to reconfigure for a variety of needs which may include: standard one-on-one usability testing; Co-discovery (two participants);
group usability testing; focus groups; remote studies; participatory design sessions; and physical product studies. Being able to conduct a variety of sessions in this room, means that the room must be of a reasonable size.

Room 1 should comfortably fit 6 – 10 people while not feeling cavernous if only two people are in it. This room can also be used for “post-mortem” meetings during which next steps are prioritized by the team.

Here is a quick list of gear that will help make reconfiguration easy:

• Small tables on wheels (at least one should be height adjustable)
• Adjustable chairs on wheels (support at least 250 lbs)
• White boards on wheels (cork boards are great too)
• Carts on wheels with supplies (post-it notes, markers, pens, 3×5 cards, etc.)
• Space to store large materials (cardboard, roll paper, etc.)
• Projector and screen
• Child-sized furniture (if applicable)

Room 2: Key Observers and Moderator (if needed)

This room should be separated from Room 1 by a glass window with a mirrored coating that has been installed so that when lighting conditions are correct, the participant cannot see anyone in Room 2, but observers can see the participant. This room must be insulated for sound as much as possible so that conversations held in the room do not distract participants during studies.

In some instances Room 2 is separated completely from Room 1 and observations are conducted by watching computer screens in Room 2. This is not recommended because it can be difficult to configure and in some cases will not allow observers to see the entire study. For example if the participant needs to move between the computer and an offline activity, the observers may miss some interaction.

Observers should be able to log notes on a computer about the session inline with the main session recording. There are a variety of software solutions that enable this including Morae. Observers should be able to adjust lighting, temperature and other environmental controls from this room. They should also have a way to communicate to the facilitator if needed through texting, chatting or another low-profile solution.

When a moderator is used they sit in Room 2 and use a microphone to speak to the participant. This room may also contain additional hardware for storing session data and monitors showing the participant’s face and computer screen.

Room 3: Stakeholders and Additional Observers

Room 3 is where stakeholders such as project managers, clients, and other interested parties can watch the sessions. This room should also be connected to Room 2, but have a wall that separates the two to reduce distractions for the key observers and moderator.

A glass wall separating Room 3 from Room 2 can be a great solution. Glass will minimize the sound from Room 3 while allowing stakeholders to watch the session live or on monitors. The glass will help to minimize distractions of the observers during studies.

This room should contain additional materials for observers such as scripts and a printed list of the participants. It should also have snacks and drinks for  participants and observers. An additional idea is to have the study objectives written out on the wall for everyone to see and to keep a running list of major findings on the wall so that everyone is clear what they both are (Thank you Richard and Greg).

Usability lab layout with three rooms.