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CURE's User Experience Laboratories | |
CURE's mission is to develop innovative and usage-oriented systems utilizing methodological and qualitative usability and usability engineering knowledge. Leading edge research activities as well as intensive industrial experience enable us to provide added value for users, producers and principals. CURE's User Experience Laboratories are fully equipped with the most advanced research and demonstration facilities. All rooms can modularly be connected with each other. This allows numerous settings for studies and observations. The main goal of most of our tests is the collection of qualitative data. A person located in one of our control rooms logs the data “live”. Qualitative tests are logged with MS Excel. If a test's goal is the verification of clearly defined hypotheses or the comparison with systems of competitors, we use The Observer Video-Pro for logging. The small amount of quantitative analysis is then made with Excel, or sometimes SPSS. We produce highlight videos with Apple’s iMovie. | |
      | Floorplan of CURE's User Experience Labs.
Two control rooms support the usability engineer's tasks. From his/her console the usability engineer is able to operate numerous cameras (which are located in three different labs) remotely and simultaneously. He/she can make close-ups, swivel the cameras and zoom in/out. The recorded videos/pictures can be sampled in various settings: numerous picture-in-picture combinations, as well as different sizes and formats can be produced.
A small high-resolution camera mounted on mobile devices facilitates tests of applications used with different device classes. It is also one of the tools used to compare and optimize the user experience of multi-channel applications. CURE's leisure labs, where most of the tests of mobile applications take place, simulate a comfortable living room atmosphere.
The functionalities of CURE's mobile lab facilities do not differ from the ones of our stationary labs. The most important difference is that it is transportable. Three cameras monitor the test setting. Signals are transmitted to a video mixer and to a digital video recorder. Also the audio signals are recorded digitally. The eye-tracking equipment is used if the research question requires the analysis of users' eye movements. The visual output of our eye tracking recordings (points/circles on the screen visualizing the user's eye focus as well as the duration of fixations, eye-movement paths, etc.) can be added to the video material.
The Experience Lab can be monitored from either of the two control rooms. Such a setting is typical for e.g. focus groups and participatory design sessions. Apart from that the Experience Lab can also be used to monitor any room of the User Experience Laboratories (via video and audio transmission from the respective room/s). Such settings are used when designers want to discuss the results of a test or a trial while watching a test session. |
CURE - Center for Usability Research & Engineering | |
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