HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION AND

COMMUNICATION
PROJECT 03: REQUIREMENTS

OVERVIEW
For this project, you will continue to build off of and refine your work for Project 02 by working with a team to
design, plan, conduct, and analyze usability testing on a design for the ARC website. For this project, you will need to
be able to collect and analyze information about how potential visitors to your site will use your design in a real-life
context. You will then need to apply what you learn about your potential visitors’ opinions, errors, and successes,
along with the usability guidelines and principles you have learned thus far, to update to your design accordingly.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR PROJECT

Our client in the auto retail industry wants to ensure that its new website offers its customers the best possible user
experience. Therefore, you need to perform a round of usability testing on your design. Once your testing is
complete, your team will need to analyze your results and summarize your findings and recommended changes in a
usability test report. You will then need to update your design based on the recommendations. You and your team
will also need to present your findings and your updated design to the client in a fifteen-minute presentation.

DELIVERABLES
In order to successfully complete Project 03, you and your team will need to create the following deliverables:

1. Usability test plan

2. Participant screener

3. Usability test report

4. Client presentation

5. Updated ARC website design, based on test results and recommendations

Note: Each member of your team must submit a copy of each of the deliverables.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR PROJECT
1. Form a project team. Work with your classmates to form a team of 3 – 5 students. You will work with this
team on all Project 03 activities, as well as the remaining in-class exercises.

2. Select one ARC site design for your testing. Review each team member’s final design for Project 02 and
decide which design you will use for this project. Consider whether you prefer to use a design that you feel
is more complete or one that would benefit more from usability testing. Include information on how and
why you selected the design in your final presentation.

3. Create a usability test plan. Using the sample test plan provided in Class 32 as a guide, create a usability test
plan for your project. Plan to test five individuals in sessions that each last approximately 30 minutes.

4. Create a screener and recruit participants for the test. Determine your audience for the test and create a
screener to filter your potential participants. When recruiting participants, you probably won’t be able to
recruit participants who fit your defined criteria. Therefore, recruit from the pool of potential users you
have available, including friends, family members, and your classmates.

Your test report should contain information about your ideal participants, but your final report and
presentation should contain information about the participants you actually tested, along with an
explanation as to why those participants were selected.

5. Conduct your usability testing sessions. Work with your teammates to schedule and conduct the sessions.
Each member of the team should act as the test moderator for at least one session. Each team member
should act as an observer for at least two sessions.

6. Analyze the results of the usability tests. Using the tools and methods presented in Class 37, create a
usability test report that provides an overview of your testing efforts, as well as details about your methods,
procedures, results, and recommendations, including:

a. Major issues
b. Possible causes
c. Recommended solutions

7. Update your design based on the results and recommendations. Make changes to your team’s ARC site
design to reflect your recommended solutions.

8. Report the test results, recommendations, and resulting design changes in an oral presentation. Group
presentations will be delivered during Classes 43 and 44. Your team will have fifteen minutes to present a
high-level overview of their testing efforts to the client. Each member of your team should be responsible
for creating and delivering a portion of the presentation. Your presentation should provide a high-level
overview of your testing efforts, including:

a. Methods and procedures

 b. Results
c. Recommendations and resulting changes

9. Submit your work to the LMS

a. Save and archive your work.
b. Name your files P03_<YourID>_Solution.zip replacing “YourID” with your Student ID.
c. Upload your solution files to the LMS.

HINTS FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT

 Evenly distribute the work for this project and its associated deliverables amongst your teammates. Each of
you will receive the same grade for this project, so it is important that you make sure you are all
contributing equally.

 You will practice all of the skills and techniques necessary to complete the project during the in-class
exercises. You will then be responsible for coordinating all of the project activities outside of class. For some
of the activities, such as conducting a usability test, you will need to coordinate with volunteers who will be
acting as the participants in you usability test.

 Your ability to effectively participate in all aspects of the communication process is crucial for success. In
today’s highly competitive world, being just technically correct is not enough. You must be able to properly
understand both technical and contextual issues, and be able to compellingly explain how a proposed
solution will bring both short-term and long-term value.

 In order for your team to be successful, each member of your team will need to demonstrate the personal
knowledge and skills necessary to be a worthy team member.

 When defining your participant characteristics, think about the type of person you would want to
participate in your test. How would he or she typically view a car rental website like the ARC’s? How much
experience would the ideal participant have using a website to manage car rental reservations? Would the
ideal candidate be articulate and willing to share his or her opinion?

 Because you will not have access to a usability test lab or equipment, you will need to select your testing
location carefully. Make sure you pick a location that is comfortable for the participants and free of
distractions. Your location will also need to have enough room so that you and your teammates can
moderate and observe the test, without crowding the participant.

 Because you will not be able to record the sessions, make sure you take detailed notes for each session.

 Use the templates and examples provided in the Usability Toolkit to help you format and structure your
deliverables.
 Although the in-class feedback sessions do not directly pertain to your project, be sure to incorporate the
 lessons learned from those sessions into your deliverables.

SUBMITTING YOUR DELIVERABLES

You are ready to zip the folder containing your deliverables into an archive and upload it to the LMS when you have:
1. Created a usability test plan, conducted your usability tests, analyzed and reported the results of your test,
and updated your website design based on your test results and recommendations.

Ensure that you know how, when and where to submit the deliverable and have completed the

above tasks before the specified deadline.