In this exercise you will simulate a user experiencing low vision. Get a cheap pair of sunglasses and smear a little Vaseline¨ onto the lenses. Calibrate the blurriness. Experiments with distributing the Vaseline until it’s possible to read 36-point type but impossible to read 12-point type. Take care to clean up the rims and frame that they’re not too repulsive to wear.

Question

Recruit four people to test. These cannot be the same people who participated in the baseline test. When testing, do obtain informed consent and administer the same pre-test questionnaire that you developed for exercise 19. Before each test, configure a Web browser to use the largest font size available. Display the home page of the e-commerce site. Use the same scenarios and record the same measures that you did in exercise 19.
a. Write an orientation script that explains that the user will be wearing a set of specially prepared classes to simulate low vision and will perform some common tasks on an e-commerce site.
b. Write up the results. Give a summary of responses on the pre-test questionnaire. For each task, create a table showing the measures for the four users.
c. Create a summary table that gives the average measures for each of the tasks.

McCracken and Wolfe User-Centered Website Development
Answers to Questions
d. Compare the measures from this group to the measures you collected in exercise 19. What are the differences? What do you conclude?

Answer 1

See the Instructor’s Website for a report covering points b, c, and d.