[Sigia-l] Questioning common test scripting

[Mitchell Gass]

At 04:07 AM 6/10/2003 -0400, Listera wrote:
>"Mitchell Gass" wrote:
> >...The point here is that the situation in a usability test is not 
> static; I can intervene to help participants feel more comfortable and be 
> more engaged.
>
>At what point do you cross the Pavlovian line?...If you're very nice to 
>me, I might overlook (consciously or subconsciously) problems...

As part of making participants feel comfortable, I encourage them to be 
comfortable being critical. Among the things I tell test participants at 
the start of test sessions are

"The goal is to find ways to make this more useful for you. Please be frank 
and speak your mind; we want to know what works and what doesn't for you."

and

"Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings; we want to know what you think."

>Hopefully, you're not putting a patina of "oh-so-scientific, white-coat 
>usability engineering" stuff on all this.

Ziya, I've said in an earlier response to you on this list that usability 
testing is not science, but rather a practical technique for improving 
designs. Can we stick to original subject of this thread, which is how best 
to conduct a usability test?

Mitchell Gass
uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
+1 510 525-6864 voice
+1 510 525-4246 fax
http://www.participatorydesign.com/