SV: [Sigia-l] logo as link to home

[Whitney Quesenbery]

I don't understand your point about bias. As I read the article, when users 
did NOT use the logo to return to the home page, they were asked - at the 
end of the test - if they knew about the link. It does not explain the 
tasks they were asked to complete, or provide anything like a complete test 
protocol, but simply says that when an expected behavior was not observed 
during the session, a follow-up question was asked about it.

I didn't read the article as confirming that the question was asked in a 
Yes/No format. This is a "topline" level article, with a whole set of test 
experiences compressed to a short paragraph. I'd be surprised if it was, as 
Carolyn Snyder is a very careful test facilitator.

What I also don't understand is how constructing such a complex task ("go 
to the home page without use the back button or typing") adds to the 
insights. In any usability test of a web site, there are lots of 
opportunities for tasks to require or suggest returning to the home page. 
This allows for many chances to see how each participant does this on their 
own, to ask them about alternate means of getting there and so on.

If they don't use it, and don't discuss the logo as one way that they might 
use, and then say that they don't know what will happen if they clicked on 
the logo, how much more confirmation do you need that it is not a 
convention that they know and use.

Someone else raised the point about branding guidelines. I've been in many 
of those situations, and have occasionally even won the point, but it is 
often quite easy to work around the guidelines, placing the "home page" 
text outside of the branding zone, once you understand the problem and 
decide to fix it.

At 04:22 PM 9/7/2002 -0400, m o r r y wrote:
>I'm not crazy about this article as the author points out that she asked the
>users if they knew the logo was a link to home. I'm not sure how accurate
>the responses are. Depending on the tone of the question the tester could
>have revealed byass along with all the other reason why not to ask users a
>yes no question.
>
>I'm not interested in what users would do if they were given a task to do
>that would reveal this convention. Maybe asking the user to go to the
>homepage without using the back button or typing would give us more insight.
>
> > http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-tricks/?dwzone=usability


Whitney Quesenbery
Whitney Interactive Design, LLC
w. www.WQusability.com
e. whitneyq at WQusability.com
p. 908-638-5467