Usability Exercise-Observing Users- Tuesday October 28, 2008

Part I Before you begin your exercise, we will review the customary procedure for Usability Experiments.

1. Get a research hypothesis!
2. Get approval from Office of Human Subjects AU Institutional Review Board to test your hypothesis
3. Prepare study materials
4. Recruit Participants
   During Experiment
   1. Begin with Information Sheet and get user to sign their consent
   2. Perform Pre-Questionairre if applicable
   3. Perform Study
   4. Perform Post-Questionairre if applicable
   5. Analyze Results

Why do I need an IRB?
When you perform any experiment that involves human subjects you must recieve consent from the Auburn Institutional Review Board if we plan to use the data collected in a publication. Just to make sure you are aware of any concerns that your study may impose on participants.
Institutional Review Board Form

Print out and complete the first sheet only of IRB Form based upon your experiment in Part II. You are the Principal Investigator.

Why do I need an information sheet?
Information sheets are given to particpants before the study to let them know what they are about to do during the experiment and also as a record that the users can take home with them.
Information Sheet Examples

Part II

Read the lesson Observing Users based on Chapter 12 Interaction Design.
Perform the exercise on Presentation Slides 14-16 to do a brief ethnographic study.

In Class Exercise for extra information.

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