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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STC Usability SIG review, January 29, 2003
This review is from: Usability Testing and Research (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication) (Paperback)
I am the Usability SIG Manager for the Washington, DC chapter of the STC (Society for Technical Communication). I wrote this review which was published in the October 2002 edition of the Usability Interface, the quarterly newsletter of the Usability SIG of the STC. Dont be fooled by the somewhat unmemorable cover of Usability Testing and Research. Carol Barnum combines research findings with practitioner experience to produce probably the most comprehensive but concise resources on usability testing now available. This book is part of the Allyn & Bacon series in technical communication. Designed in part to fulfill the needs of students in a graduate-level class in usability, it is also a great resource for usability practitioners as a tool to update and upgrade their skills. The structure of this book should suit both neophytes and the experienced. Each chapter and its subsections are well structured with a logical progression from one section to the next. The table of contents is well organized and very readable so that a knowledgeable individual can scan to find those sections that are of most immediate interest. The index is likely to be a great reference tool as it was created by a professional usability tester, someone who should know what a reader is likely to need. Dr. Barnum, a usability consultant and professor to graduate usability students, draws upon nearly every prominent usability authority to build a comprehensive bible of usability testing. The authors academic background is evident in the careful footnoting of every page and the detailed listing of scores of references at the end of each chapter. If there is an issue the reader wishes to further explore, the source is cited for ready access. The findings from top usability professionals are distilled to their essence and woven into comprehensive work on usability. The reader gains the primary benefit of hundreds of books, papers, and articles without having to filter though this sea of information. There is little if anything of importance that is left out of this 448-page book of concentrated wisdom and knowledge. The reader, whether a student or an experienced practitioner, gets the benefit of both analytic research and its practical application. Many examples of actual real-world, usability test plans, data, analysis, or summary reports are reprinted. These examples are great models for the practice of usability. This book has not just general how you might do something but also how it was actually done not just theory but actual practice. Anyone interested in the usability of hardware, software, computer games, Web sites any product that has a user interface will find a great wealth of information. The first chapter starts off defining usability and explaining usability testing models and theory. It also provides a methodology for cost justification and the basis to proselytiz for usability. In Chapter 2, the author should be commended for taking a holistic view of usability and discussing how heuristics, surveys, and focus groups play a role in the design of a usable product. Chapters 3 through 7 explain user and task analysis as a precursor to designing, planning, preparing, and conducting the test. Chapter 8 details not just the analyses of the collected data but also different methods of reporting the findings to obtain the best result. The final chapter builds on everything before and discusses those issues specific to Web usability. Nearly every chapter has an appendix with real-world examples specific to that chapter. The end-of-the-book appendix discusses how to make usability testers work as a well-functioning team. Some books are chock full of scholarly research and empirical data and great for academia. This book has a solid base in research but was written for the real-world practitioners of usability. Its this steady focus on practical real-world application that most impresses me about this book. Still not convinced this book is for you? Check out the companion Web site, ..... Download material from the books appendices and sidebars. Peruse the many usability tools and link to other usability resources on the Web. Usability Testing and Research is not only of great value as a resource of practical information to usability professionals but also as a tool to explain the benefits of usability design and testing to skeptical management. Carol Barnum should be congratulated for a great job in bringing together in one book such a complete, well-organized compilation of usability theory and practicality.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A solid textbook on usability testing that includes web, May 30, 2003
This review is from: Usability Testing and Research (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication) (Paperback)
It's been a long time since we've had a new textbook on usability testing. Dumas and Redish came out in 1993, Rubin in 1994 and although I still use both of them constantly, I've been looking out for a solid textbook that has more awareness of the web in it. Carol Barnum's new book meets that need. The book opens with chapters on `What is Usability and What is Usability Testing', `Other Methods for Getting Feedback About Product Usability', `User and Task Analysis', and `Iterative Testing for User-Centred Design'. I can see that Carol wants to set user testing in context, but I was concerned that if you're really new to usability testing then you might be put off by Chapter 2 `Other methods', as it is a very densely written chapter that describes many techniques very briefly. The meat of the book starts at Chapter 5 with `Planning for Usability Testing' and continues through `Preparing for Usability Testing', `Conducting the Usability Test', and `Analysing and Reporting Results'. The book then changes course slightly with a chapter on 'Web Usability', giving some design principles as well as details of applying the methods to the web. Our Open University students love the plentiful examples in our course on User Interface Design and Evaluation. Carol Barnum's book should also appeal because of its extensive use of examples. She gives lots of detail from a student team's test of Hotmail (Microsoft's web-based e-mail service) so you can see the process as they tackled it. I found it a little frustrating that there weren't any screen shots of Hotmail as it stood at the time of the test. As well as the Hotmail example she uses excerpts from a test of a University web site, and has lots of anecdotes and smaller examples as well, many of them aimed at testing documentation - a neglected area. Perhaps the amount of space taken up the examples means that there is less meat in the core of the book, but if I were a beginner I'd find it very reassuring. Conversely, though, experienced practitioners might find Chapter 5 onwards a bit basic. Academics and practitioners who like to follow up interesting ideas will be glad to know that there is extensive referencing. The appendices placed in context with the chapters broke the flow for me somewhat when I was reading the book at a sitting, but I think they would be more convenient placed where they are when using the book to actually plan and conduct a test. Each chapter closes with questions/topics for discussion and exercises which looked helpful to me if you were planning to use this as a textbook, or if you are a new practitioner who is using the book as a guide through your first usability tests. Carol Barnum's style is clear and easy to read as you would expect from a Professor in Technical Communication. She often uses comments from Chauncey Wilson, a very experienced practitioner to give some practical tips and insights, but I sometimes found myself wishing that she had put more a more personal touch, more of her own practical experience, explicitly into the book. Apart from a couple of anecdotes, the word `I' hardly appears until we get some of her own opinions on web usability at the end of Chapter 9. We can guess at one of her concerns because she includes an interesting appendix on `Making it work as a team', which I though was a good, concise introduction. I would recommend this book as an introductory text for undergraduates because of the extensive examples, fairly reasonable price and referencing. I think it would also be good for practitioners - for people who are getting started with user testing - to help them through their first test. I think that I'll find myself recommending that readers should start with Chapter 5, and then come back to Chapters 1 to 4 later. (This review was written for 'Interfaces', the magazine of the British HCI Group)
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Usability Testing Made Accessible, July 13, 2002
This review is from: Usability Testing and Research (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication) (Paperback)
Usability Testing and Research (UTAR), by Carol M. Barnum,is a book that every technical communicator should have on his or her bookshelf. Although written primarily as a textbook for college courses, UTAR is an excellent introduction to user-centered design and usability testing for those in industry who have had no formal training in the area, or for those who would like a refresher. The book is designed so you can read straight through, skip around and read topics of interest, or dip into for specific information. An excellent table of contents and thorough index make topics immediately accessible and make it easy to follow them through the book. It shouldn't be surprising, however, that a book about usability that is this good would provide excellent access. The very brief summary of the highlights of UTAR are: * A structure that moves from theory to practice in every step of user-centered design and usability testing
* Well-written text with lots of heads for easy navigation
* Anecdotal and humorous information in sidebars to make the theory real
* Great descriptions of low-fidelity usability testing with examples of how to do it
* Samples of the artifacts of usability testing such as plans, forms, reports, questionnaires, testing questions, and checklists
* Real case studies with their artifacts that are threaded throughout the book in the appropriate chapters and appendixes
* Discussion questions and exercises for those who want to teach from the book
* A chapter on Web usability testing
* An appendix on creating teams to do usability testing Then, as if the book weren't good enough by itself, Barnum has included the URL of a Web site that provides resources, templates, forms, and other support. The PDF templates and forms are useful as models for developing your own or to print and use as is. They fit nicely into the structure and content of UTAR. A support link on the Web page provides PowerPoint presentations and charts a teacher could use in the classroom or a technical communicator or manager could use to educate decision makers about the benefits of usability testing. One of the buttons on the home page is "About the Author," so I clicked it to see what Barnum's credentials are. She a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a recipient of STC's Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication. That explains the excellence of Usability Testing and Research. I manage a group of technical communicators in a large telecommunications company, and I'm getting a copy of Usability Testing and Research for our library. We'll use it to help with our usability testing and to mentor those who have little or no experience in that activity. My suggestion is to buy it, read it, refer back to it often. Art Elser, PhD
Manager, Information Development
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