User Testing

For today's post I thought I would talk a bit about what I've been working on lately with Astrid (another researcher here).

We're at the point in RRN development where we need to gather user data. We've been working hard to develop tests we can give to a number of different groups of users to evaluate the site properly. We basically want to know what doesn't work for our users.

For example, some major things we want to find out are; what features do people use on the site? Are there confusing parts of the site that users cannot navigate properly? Also, what would people like to see from the RRN in the future?

We will be testing three different user groups. Astrid is working on developing tests for student researchers here at the University of British Columbia and other schools in the Vancouver area. We even have a trip to Costco planned later this week to buy some food-related incentives (namely chocolate bars) for students to act as our participants.

The other group we need information and input from are the museum professionals who use the site regularly - and even those who don't. I will be meeting with some of the people who use the site asking for important feedback and providing useful information on what works and what doesn't.

Our community liaisons are also working hard in Alert Bay and Chilliwack. They are testing the site, providing demonstrations, and participating in discussions about what we can do to improve the RRN.

In addition to the usability testing, Ryan and Nick (our software developers) have added a new "feedback" button on the site. When you log in, you'll notice the red tab on the left hand side of your browser. You can click on this tab to give us some ideas and vote for what features you want the most. Democratically, these votes will determine which new features will become our priorities.

As you might have guessed, the theme of these upcoming weeks is Usability. Getting as much information from existing and new users as we possibly can. I'll keep you updated on how this testing is going throughout the following weeks.

If you would like to participate in our testing, just email me:

hannah@rrnpilot.org.

Don't forget to vote for the features you want on our feedback button.

Until next time,

Hannah