Formal Publications
- Dumas, J. & Redish, J. (1999). A practical guide to usability testing (Revised edition). Exeter, UK: Intellect. This book provides excellent practical advice for groups who want to initiate usability testing. Both new and experienced usability professionals will find this book useful. Topics include planning and preparing for usability tests, analyzing data, and communicating the results.
- Nielsen, J. (1994). Usability engineering. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Nielsen's Usability Engineering is highly recommended as a solid introduction to the design of usable products. The book details how usability issues must be considered throughout the development process and provides techniques for gathering usability data. There is excellent information on low-cost usability testing techniques.
- Rubin, J., & Chisnell, D. (2008). Handbook of usability testing (Second Edition): How to plan, design, and conduct effective tests. New York: Wiley. This handbook is a step-by-step guide to effective usability testing. Rubin and Chisnell provide many tips that will benefit both the new and the experienced usability practitioner.
Nielsen, Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users<
Perfetti & Landesman, Eight is Not Enough<
Clustering for Usability Participant Selection< Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1, November 2007, pp. 41-53. Conducting user studies can be very expensive when selecting several experiment participants. The approach of collecting participant demographics and other information as input into clustering is a mechanism for selecting ideal participants.
Published Studies
Unexpected Complexity in a Traditional Usability Study< Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 3, Issue 4, August 2008, pp. 189-205
- The study recommends that usability specialists expand our definition of traditional usability measures so that measures include external assessment by content experts of the completeness and correctness of users' performance. The study also found that it is strategically indispensable for new clients to comprehend the upper end of complexity in their products because doing so creates a new space for product innovation.
Other materials available from UPA
Coyne, Kara Pernice. Testing More Than ALT Text- Techniques for Testing Usability and Accessibility. UPA 2002 Conference
Faulkner, Laura Lynn. Reducing Variability - Research into Structured Approaches to Usability Testing and Evaluation. UPA 2002 Conference.
Gorlenko, Lada. Long-term (longitudinal) research and usability. UPA 2005 Conference.
Harris. Effects of Social Facilitation & Electronic Monitoring on Usability Testing. UPA 2005 Conference.
Jarrett, Caroline.; Quesenbery, Whitney. How to look at a form - in a hurry. UPA 2006 Conference.
Laberge, Jason.; Hajdukiewicz; John.;Ming Kow, Yong. An integrated approach to competitive usability assessments. UPA 2005 Conference.
Lee, Dong-Seok.; Woods,David D.; Kidwell, Daniel. Escaping the design traps of creeping featurism: Introducing a fitness management strategy. UPA 2006 Conference.
Mitchell, Peter P. An Inventory and Critique of Online Usability Testing Packages. UPA 2002 Conference.
O'Brien, Eileen. ; Roessler, Peter. A Tale of Two Customers. UPA 2009 Conference.
Robillard-Bastien, Alain. Reporting usability studies: are we using optimal reporting formats? UPA 2002 Conference.
Sova, Deborah Hinderer; Kantner, Laurie E. Technology and Techniques for Conducting Instant-Messaging Studies. UPA 2005 Conference.
Sundy, Mary G.;Wayman, Lauren M.; Schwendeman, Charlotte. Two Birds With One Document: Delivering Results With Maximum Impact. UPA 2002 Conference.
Tedesco, Donna.;McNulty, Michelle.; Tullis, Tom. Usability Testing with Older Adults. UPA 2005 Conference.
Tullis, Tom.; Fleischman, Stan.; McNulty,Michelle.; Cianchette, Carrie.; Bergel, Marguerite. An Empirical Comparison of Lab and Remote Usability
Testing of Web Sites. 2002 UPA Conference.
Turner, Carl W.; Nielsen, Jakob.; Lewis, James R. Current Issues in the Determination of Usability Test Sample Size: How Many Users is Enough? UPA 2002 Conference.
Wei, Carolyn.; Barrick,Jennifer.; Cuddihy, Elisabeth.; Spyridakis, Jan. Conducting Usability Research through the Internet: Testing Users via the WWW. UPA 2005 Conference.
Cost-Effectiveness
*Bias, R. G., & Mayhew, D. J. (2005). Cost-justifying usability, second edition: An update for the internet age. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
How to do it
Carlson, Jennifer Lee; Braun,Kelly; Kantner, Laurie. When Product Teams Observe Field Research Sessions: Benefits and Lessons Learned. UPA 2009 Conference.
Gellner, Michael.; Oertel,Karina. Efficiency of Recording Methods for Usability Testing. UPA 2001 Conference.
Hawley, Michael. Evaluating and Improving Your Research Interview Technique. UPA 2009 Conference.
Kaniasty, Eva. Web Analytics and Usability Testing: Triangulate your way to better design recommendations. UPA 2009 Conference.
Patel, Mona.; Paulsen, Christine Andrews. Strategies for Recruiting Children for Usability Tests. UPA 2002 Conference.
Schall, Andrew. Eyeing Successful User ExperienceMeasuring Success & Failure Through the use of Eye-Tracking. UPA 2009 Conference.
Summers, Michael; Johnston, Gavin; Capria, Frank. Donít Tell Me, Show Me: How Video Transforms the Way We Analyze and Report Data From Field Studies. UPA 2001 Conference.
Travis, Kristin.; Yepez, Cindy. One on One Usability Studies vs. Group Usability Studies: Is There a Difference? UPA 2002 Conference.
Wehner, Mark and Wailes, Tom. Field Day: A Simple Method for Connecting Teams to Their Users. UPA 2009 Conference.
Variations
Travis, Kristin.; Yepez, Cindy. One on One Usability Studies vs. Group Usability Studies: Is There a Difference? UPA 2002 Conference.
Labs
Barlow-Busch, Robert., and Day-Hamilton, Tobi. To Build or Not To Build: Considerations For Constructing a Usability Lab.
Bevis, Korin., Henke,Kristine., & OíKeefe, Dr. Timothy. Thinking ìOut of the Labî: Using a Customer Advisory Council to get Real-World Feedback. UPA 2009 Conference.
Lafleur, Andy. Camera-less Video: Usability Test Recording and Presentation in Direct Digital Form. UPA 2001 Conference.
Participants
Bzostek, Julie. Testing a Web Site with Elementary School Children. UPA 2001 Conference.
Conklin, Sara.; Doutney, Joan. Hiding a Paradigm Shift: Maintaining task simplicity in a selfservice application. UPA 2008 Conference
Klee, Matthew. A Match Made in Heaven: Recruiting the Right Users for Usability Testing. UPA 2001 Conference.
Problems
Conklin, Sara.; Doutney, Joan. Hiding a Paradigm Shift: Maintaining task simplicity in a selfservice application. UPA 2008 Conference
Karn, Keith S. Subjective ratings of usability: Reliable or ridiculous? UPA 2008 Conference.
Gregory, Keith. Seven-Layer Model of Usability Attributes. UPA 2001 Conference.