HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION AND

COMMUNICATION
EXERCISE 33 – CREATING A USABILITY TEST PLAN

NAME: ____________________________________

PURPOSE
The purpose of today’s exercise is to create a usability test plan for the WFI site design.

ACTIVITIES
Perform each of the following activities. If you have questions, issues, or doubts, please ask for help and do not just
guess.

1. Using the sample test plan provided in Class 32 as a guide, work with your teammates to create a usability test
plan for testing you will conduct on the WFI website design.
a. Review the WFI designs of each member of the team and select one design to use for your usability
testing activities. You will use this design for all in-class exercises for the remainder of the semester.
b. Use the Usability Test Plan Template from the Usability Toolkit to help you format your test plan.
c. Use the Hints and Tips section below to help you fill in some of the details of your test plan. Make sure
your test plan includes:
i. A high-level overview
ii. Research questions
iii. Participant information
iv. Methodology
v. User tasks
vi. Test environment and logistics
vii. Project timeline and testing schedule
viii. Measures
ix. Deliverables

2. When you are finished creating your test plan, copy and paste your plan in the space below.

3. Save your finished document and upload it to the LMS. Make sure you have:
a. Added your name to the space provided at the top of this document.
b. Renamed the document to include your Student ID.

Each member of your team must submit a copy of the completed exercise.
4. Make an entry in your Engineering Notebook, reflecting on the exercise and how it affects your plans for Project
03.

HINTS AND TIPS

To help you fully plan your usability testing efforts, the following information has been provided:

Research questions:

These will likely be very similar to the research questions you developed for your research plan. Working with your
team, revisit the questions from your research plan to determine whether your questions need to be updated.

Participant information:

 We will discuss recruiting participants in Class 34. Therefore, use the information in the table below in the
participant section of your test plan.
 Work with your teammates to define some of the overall characteristics of your participants. In general, test
participants should represent the target audience(s) for the site so think through some of the characteristics
of the average WFI site user and include that information in the table below.
 Your participant characteristics should be at a very high level. Think about the type of person you would
want to participate in your test. How would he or she typically view non-profits like the WFI? Would an ideal
participant have experience using websites? Do you want participants who are articulate and willing to
share their opinions?

Desired number
Characteristic of participants

Participant type
Regular 1

Total number of participants 1

Overall characteristics
All participants:


Age
N/A

Gender
N/A
Methodology:

Describe the type of test you will conduct and the process you will use. Don’t forget to include details on the type of
information you will collect during your test. Use the following information to help you with the details:

 You will conduct your usability testing sessions for the WFI site design during Class 36.
 Your team will work with another team from the class to take turns conducting a usability test. Each team
will conduct one usability testing session, using a member of the partner team as their evaluator.
 One member of your team will act as the test moderator. All of the other team members will act as
observers.
 You will have approximately 20 minutes to conduct your usability test, including setting up the test, running
the test, and holding a quick debrief with the observers at the end of the session to discuss your
observations.

Tasks:

 Work with your team to determine a full list of the tasks you would like to have your evaluators perform
during a usability test of the WFI site.
 Because the usability testing will take place during Exercise 36, you will only have 20 minutes to conduct the
entire test. Therefore, you will need to prioritize your tasks to determine which tasks you will have the user
perform during Exercise 36.
 Even though you may have seven tasks listed in your test plan, you may only have time to test three or four
of them in Exercise 36.
 When creating your tasks, remember to create tasks that match the criteria outlined in class.

Test environment and logistics:

 Your usability test will be conducted in person, with no recording or remote monitoring.
Project timeline and testing schedule:

Use the course schedule to fill in the details for the project timeline below:

What When
Initial working meeting Class 33
 Review project objectives, scope, deliverables
 Identify participant selection criteria

Recruit participants

1 usability test sessions (20 minutes each)

Debrief on observations and findings

Deliver final written report and recommendations

Measures:

 Work with your teammates to determine the data you will collect during your test.

Deliverables:

The deliverables for your testing on the WFI website will include:

 A test plan
 A usability test session
 A debrief with observers
 A written report detailing your findings
USABILITY TEST PLAN