Mobile Usability Testing

Dec 28
mobile-usability-testing.jpg

Conducting usability tests for Mobile Websites and Applications can be tricky without the appropriate equipment. Recently I sat in on some observations for a new Mobile App, all-in-all it went really well, but I couldn't help but think the equipment could have been better. There were restrictions applied to the candidates, where they were unable to move the device from its observation cradle, this resulted in a reduction in natural movement and behaviour.

Jan Evans of Fusion Alliance has written a summary of Setup options for Mobile Usability Testing, the article looks at a variety of usability test equipment for Mobile devices and includes the Pros and Cons of each - these range from Wearable, Screen Capture applications, Document Cameras, Specific mounts/testing sleds and Do It Yourself solutions.


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Filed under:
Usability

Vista you start me up!

Feb 16

So some of us have moved to Windows Vista, a few teething problems but are please with some usability improvements.

For instance the most obvious to note is that you no longer have to start in order to 'shut down'.

As a user of Windows XP you had to select the 'Start' button to shut down the machine, which always seemed a bit of a misnomer to me. However Vista improves on this by only showing the icon button.

Windows XP - Start it up then Shut it down

xp-shutdown.png


Windows Vista - Shut down

vista-shoutdown1.png

Although I still found myself hunting the 'shut down' option and inadvertently selecting the globally recognised symbol for stand-by.

vista-standby.png


Filed under:
Usability