Institut für Software-Ergonomie und Usability

The Institut für Software-Ergonomie und Usability is a privately held Zürich-based usability consulting company. During usability testing, test leader and participant communicate during the test by microphone (if necessary). During the test, the user is being observed by at least two independent observers while conducting a predefined set of user scenarios on the Lab test PC. After the test, tasks and events are logged based on the videotapes created during the test session (using The Observer Video-Pro. For CIF based reporting purposes, summary statistics (task completion, error and assistance rates) are exported into Excel and SPSS while videotapes are transcribed for qualitative analysis. For presentation purposes, Camtasia movies and video highlight clips (MPEG-2 / AVI) are produced.

The Test Room. The test room consists of an "office" like setting to allow for a "as much natural setting" as possible. The cameras are installed in the upper corners of the room, almost invisible for the test participants. Camtasia runs on the test PCs for background logging purposes. For Website testing purposes, three different operating systems: Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and two different internet connections are in use: 56 Kb (dial-up modem) and 2 MB (LAN).

The Observer Room. They particularly decided on a large observation room with an extra large one-way mirror to allow for different views on the test participant while observing. In addition to the test leader and the person responsible for live encoding, there is room for up to five additional observers. The current test setting also allows for conducting and operating remote usability tests.

Institut für Software-Ergonomie und Usability
Technoparkstrasse 1
CH-8005 Zürich
Switzerland
www.usability.ch