8 Evaluating UA design and content

What this clause covers

The public contents gives evaluation three steps. First set the content usability testing goals. Then define the measures and requirements that say whether the help worked. Then test for mobile applications. The order matters. A team that starts with a test script and looks for measures afterwards will report what it happened to observe. The mobile step is also a warning about method. A phone in a lab, on a fast network, with a moderator sitting beside the participant, is not the setting the help will meet. The draft leaves the exact measures open, so the team has to choose and defend them. That is an opportunity: completion, time, errors, findability and confidence can all be defined in a way that fits the app.

The headings in this clause

• 8.1 Content usability testing goals
• 8.2 UA measures and requirements
• 8.3 UA testing for mobile applications

What to put in place before publication

1. Write the testing goals before the first session and tie each one to a decision the team can take.
2. Choose measures that fit the help, such as task completion, time to answer, wrong turns, findability and confidence.
3. Set a baseline on the current release so a later result can be compared with something.
4. Test on real devices and real networks, including a small screen, a slow connection and an interrupted session.
5. Include first time and expert users, and record which group each finding came from.
6. Keep consent, recording and personal data handling in the test plan, and delete what you do not need.

Evidence to keep

Where teams usually fall short

• The test is a desktop session with the browser narrowed to phone width.
• Only satisfaction is measured, so the team cannot tell whether the task was completed.
• Findings are reported and never triaged, so the same defect returns next release.

What happens next

At FDIS, check whether the measures are named more precisely. If they are, map the published measures to the ones already in the test plan rather than starting again.