[Sigia-l] Questioning common test scripting

[Listera]

Not quite understanding the focus of the thread perhaps because this is his
first post to it, "Jeff Lash" wrote:

> In Listera's 7th post in this thread, "Listera" wrote:
> 
>> Your intentions or even your delivery are unimportant here.
>> The fact remains that by declaring the design faulty you've
>> given them implicit/explicit permission and, perhaps,
>> even encouragement to find faults.
> 
> That's exactly the point of usability testing -- to uncover issues in a
> system that may impact usability.

Whatever the point of usability testing may be, we're discussing something
different: specifically and narrowly whether certain phrases pre-condition
participants and thus bias the outcome of the test.

>> Now, this may be exactly what you want, but let's not call it neutral,
>> inert, nonbiased or 'scientific'.
> 
> Who said it was "scientific"?

Are we even following the same thread?

Ash:
>> Ziya, Mitchell and others will probably despise me for this, but I
>> come from the point of view where yes, usability testing IS a
>> scientific process...

> For someone who's always railing on about white lab coats, I don't know why
> you would care?

I care because those who peddle "usability engineering" as a scientific
enterprise set up IA for ridicule, when their methods are examined for
rigor. There are a lot of half-truths and nonsense parading as usability
gospel, and they get repeated.
 
> To paraphrase Jared Spool, of course usability tests are biased!

Don't tell me that, tell Ash :-)

> ... that sounds pretty biased to me!

Not just biased, but in many circumstances capable of producing misleading
results.
 
> You can harp on the details of biased/nonbiased, or you can accept the fact
> that there are biases introduced and focus on the real goal -- making the
> system easier to use.

If you were following this closely, you may have noticed that I said I use
testing a lot, but I don't pretend that it's scientific or unbiased, they
are, to me, "conversations" with (potential) users. I'm not wearing a white
coat.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba