More User Testing!

This past week Astrid, Tristan and I have been working hard at getting some user feedback for the RRN. As I said in another post, we're trying to make the RRN work for everyone, or at least the majority, so we need as much feedback as we can get (we are not above bribing).

Turns out, it's really hard to watch over someones back while they become confused by the site. It's hard for us - we want people to understand and not to become frustrated; but it's also hard for our users when they do become confused and annoyed. But it's this type of evaluation that is invaluable for the RRN.



Not exactly how we want our evaluation to go ......

Basically we're trying to accept the fact that people who have never used the site provide more valuable feedback than we ever could. The customer is always right, or in this case, the user is more right than us.

I am learning so much from our users. I'm recognizing how the RRN can be very confusing to new users regardless of their experience with similar web based tools. Using the information we're gathering with these tests, we'll work hard to remedy these problems over the next couple of months.

The old saying that "two eyes are better than one" is really our motto so far. Except we're taking it to the extreme. Three eyes are better than two, four are better than three - and so on ad nauseum.

The ultimate user -friendly site is on it's way. Get excited. And tell us when you find yourself lost on the site, confused, unable to do something.

In short - let us know what you want and we'll try our best to make the RRN the best place to do collaborative research on the web. And we won't just copy what Google does - too much.

Until next time,
Hannah

CASCA

Astrid, one of the other researchers here, has just finished a presentation at the CASCA conference.
CASCA (Canadian Anthropology Society-Société Canadienne d'Anthropologie) was hosted at the Department of Anthropology, UBC last week.

The title of the conference was "Transnational Anthropologies: Convergences and Divergences in Globalized Disciplinary Networks", and it was a great venue to showcase the RRN.

Astrid gave a workshop on the site to a small audience and said that it was a great experience.

While Astrid was busy showing off the RRN, Nick, Sue and I were in Seattle visiting the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. I'd never been to the Burke before, and was incredibly impressed with the museum. Hopefully we'll see their collection on the RRN eventually!

Aside from that, we're still thinking about usability and trying to find ways to access all potential user groups. Tristan and I are going to set up a small booth in the Anthropology department today to hopefully grab a couple of students to see if our testing method is up to par.

Also on the agenda for today is a brief Skype meeting with our community liaisons in Alert Bay, Chilliwack and Musqueam.


Remember, send me a quick email if you'd like to participate in any of our wonderful usability surveys!

Hannah@rrnpilot.com

See you!

Hannah

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