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6. Lab: Usability Testing and Presentation

Estimated time to read: 5 minutes

In this lab, you will conduct usability tests on your app, document the findings, and prepare a final presentation to showcase your work.

6.1 Preparation

🧰 Ensure that everything outlined in the preparation section is fully finalized.

6.1.1 Usability Evaluation

Your team is required to conduct a comprehensive usability evaluation of your application. This evaluation will help identify areas for improvement and ensure your application meets user needs effectively.

  • Cognitive Walkthrough
    • One team member performs a cognitive walkthrough of your application.
    • Focus on the intuitiveness of the interface for first-time users.
    • Document the process and identify any points of confusion or difficulty.
  • Heuristic Evaluation
    • Another team member conducts a formal heuristic evaluation.
    • Apply established usability principles such as Nielsen's heuristics.
    • Systematically assess all interface elements against these principles.
    • Document violations with specific examples from your application.

  • Thinking-Aloud Tests

    • Conduct a minimum of two thinking-aloud tests with participants from outside the course.
    • Have users verbalize their thoughts while completing predefined tasks.
    • Document the specific user tasks (choose tasks related to your important features), the test itself, ... e.g. 
    45-year-old office administrator with moderate technical proficiency, uses smartphones daily but has limited experience with fitness applications. Fits the Persona X.
Test Date: June 25, 2025, duration: 30 minutes
Task 1: Track your cycling tour.
Outcome: Partial success, tracked the tour, but could not enter all data.
Time: 20s
Observation/note: Appeared confused ...
Pain Points: ...

  • Accessibility Evaluation

    • Utilize appropriate accessibility assessment tools: e.g. Wave or Accessibility Scanner.
    • Document all identified accessibility issues.

6.1.2 Synthesis of Findings

Categorize and synthesize your findings, end your usability report with a

  • Comprehensive list of all identified issues
  • Severity rating for each issue (e.g., critical, major, minor)
  • Usability methods that revealed this problem
  • Proposed fixes for each identified issue

You are not required to implement fixes for the identified usability issues. In fact, please avoid doing so, as it may complicate the tracking of findings in your report.

6.1.3 Reflection

Conclude the document lab6.md with a reflection and critical analysis of the usability methods employed.

6.1.4 Project Video

Create a 1-2 minute video showcasing your app, highlighting key features, interactions, and possible usability improvements. Upload the video to Nextcloud.

6.1.5 Final Presentation

Your final presentation will be held during the lab and additional lectures to allow sufficient time for questions and feedback.

  • One notebook computer per team
  • 2-minute live application demonstration
  • 5-minute presentation per team member, covering
    • further details in Moodle
  • Note: Do not show your video during the presentation. The videos will be watched during the last lecture. For that final lecture, ensure your app is running on two mobile devices.

6.1.6 Repository Submission Deadline

Please note that the entire repository content will be frozen at the following times

  • Mi5x: (Monday): June 30, 2025 at 13:00 (1:00 PM)
  • Mi5y: (Monday): July 7, 2025 at 13:00 (1:00 PM)
  • Do5x: (Tuesday): July 8, 2025 at 13:00 (1:00 PM)

Your project will be evaluated based on the criteria listed in Moodle.

All repository content must be finalized before the deadline. No changes will be accepted after the freeze time.

Should you have any questions regarding the submission requirements, please contact me promptly.

6.2 During the Lab and Additional Lectures (see Moodle for dates)

  • presentations
  • individual questioning of each team member
  • feedback