[Sigia-l] Does geography effect usability and user testing

[Todd Warfel]

I think this is less of a geography issue and more of a moderator style
issue. For us, the script is just a guideline of questions we want to get
answered, or issues we want to investigate, but it's not hard and fast. We
don't necessarily ask the question directly. We've found instead that
through the natural course of the dialogue we have with the participant, the
questions will get answered. We do probe when necessary, but it's not that
often. 

This "Bollywood" effect is something we refer to as "providing context" to
the participant. We do this w/every task we ask them to attempt.

On Nov 22, 2005, at 4:58 AM, Matthew Goddard wrote:


My experience and that of my friends is that in the UK we prefer a more
inquisitorial approach (which I've heard called a cognitive interview) where
the facilitator constantly probes for information over the think aloud
method, where the users are primarily left think out loud with the
facilitator only asking questions when they need to clarify a point.


Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | making products & services easier to use
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