Carry out usability tests on your prototype.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Depending on the maturity of your students, you might consider having the students conduct a “dress rehearsal,” where you act as the test user and the students conduct the test on you. This will give them another chance to practice and you can help them fine-tune their presentation and demeanor.
Make sure that they give the appropriate pre-test orientation to the user, including instructions on how to use the prototype and offering an informed consent. Also check their test scenarios. They should state a goal such as, “Buy a ____” or “Find a ___”. They should not include instructions on what button to press.
You can observe the test team administering a test to a user. The following is a possible scoring sheet for such an observation. In fact, we distribute the scoring sheet when we assign this homework as a means of focusing their preparation. Edit the sheet to suit your purposes.
A note about the scoring sheet: There is an attempt to balance individual performance versus overall team performance. There is an individual score and a team score. Each individual is responsible for a certain number of points. The greeter is responsible for 25 points; the facilitator is responsible for 20 points; the computer for 11 points and the observer for 13 points. The individual score is the percentage of points earned out of the individual points possible. Thus, one person who performed very well when the rest of team did poorly will not overly punished. Conversely, one person performing poorly will not be buoyed up as much by a strong team performance.