Usability Reading Assignment
Start off your usability assignment by reading about "How we really use the Web" in order to gain some background as to why we perform usability testing. The sample chapter is from Steve Krug's book on the subject - Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.

Next you are to head over to Jakob Nielsen's Useit site and find two articles on usability that look appealing.

These two guru's of usability have very different opinions on how web pages should be designed. Krug is more designer friendly while Nielsen would be more likely to have all pages be text only.

Usability Testing Assignment
The purpose of performing usability testing is to find out as much as you can about people's perceptions of your navigation and the details of your site, before you get too far in the process and find out that people just don't understand your site.

What you need to start
Sketch out six detailed pages from your proposed site on six separate pieces of 8.5"x11" paper - one per page. The index page is considered first level. Second level pages are the ones that link directly off of the main index page's navigation links. Third level pages link from the second level pages, and may or may not have links located on the index page, but these would not typically be part of the main navigation. For the purposes of this assignment, you should have the index page, about four second level pages, and at least two third level pages sketched out. You don't need to have every page from your entire site sketched, just these six in order to perform usability testing.

What you will do (think out loud)
Conduct at least three interviews with people as they navigate through the rough version of your site. But wait, it's not as simple as that. The object is to have the person you are interviewing "think out loud" while they check out one page of your site at a time. You are not to give them leading questions or correct them if their perceptions are completely different from what you intended. In fact, that is what should happen - they should see things different than what you had originally planned. That way you get some constructive and valuable input as to what might need to be refined.

Start the process by describing what you are trying to do - conduct a usability test to see if the navigation and meaning or layout of the site makes sense to the visitor. Let the interviewee know that it is extremely important for them to "think out loud" and describe what they are seeing (navigation links, a map of the area, how to contact people, an animation about how the company got started, etc) and where they would expect to end up if they clicked on a link (portfolio page, resume, gallery of images, etc). It may be extremely beneficial for you to demonstrate this for them by performing the think out loud process on a web site already in existence. I suggest the used and new automobile site edmunds.com because it has been used many times in the past for this kind of testing. Other good sites would be apple.com, amazon.com, or bn.com because all of these use a tabbed navigation scheme that has proven to be easy to understand and navigate.

The object of this whole exercise is for you to work out some of the vague naming schemes and design issues that your site may have before you actually start to create it in Photoshop and ImageReady. Don't be surprised if people misinterpret where they might end up if they clicked on a link, or if they think some objects would be links when they are not, or vice versa. Yet don't take every recommendation they give you to be the best solution either. Write down their individual input and compare it to the notes from the other usability tests. Make it clear to the interviewee that they are simply giving their perception of your site and to be honest at all times. Also let them know that you consider any input to be helpful in your quest to create a more usable site.

Back to the how-to details of this testing process. When they have a clear understanding of what you are trying to accomplish, give them just the sketch of the index page (home page of the site). Write down as much as you can based on their input. After they have checked it out and selected a link, give them that page. If you don't have that particular page sketched out, just inform them of the fact and have them select another choice - but don't tell them that something is a link, they need to be able to figure out that on their own. The most valuable input they will be giving you during this phase is usually what they would expect to find on each of these links. What you had labeled"gallery" might come across to them as leading to a page with images of various paintings and sculptures in stead of one containing thumbnail graphics of your family. If they start asking specific questions about the site, just let them know that you can talk about those details after you are done with the "think out loud" process.

After the think out loud process
Now it is time to get some details as to why the interviewee interpreted things the way they did. Here is where you can describe what you had intended a link to be and get feedback as to why they would expect it to contain different content. What matters more than what you intended, is how the viewer perceived it at the start. Bring up whatever appropriate questions you have regarding their input. The interviewee might have other ideas or opinions about the layout or navigation of your site. This is the time to bring that out of them.

Again take detailed notes, but don't take offence to their input. Great web designers perform this kind of testing to ensure that their sites keep their customers interested without making them guess all of the time or get frustrated and click off to someone else's site.

Ending the session
Be sure to be courteous to the interviewee, thank them for their input, and let them get back to whatever it is that you dragged them away from in the first place. Now is also a good time to review your chicken scratch to make sure that you actually understand your own notes. Review what worked in the interview and what you need to change (your approach, the questions you asked, etc. - you'll change the site design and navigation later).

Once you are done with the first, find another victim and do it all over again. You'll find that by the third time, you are getting the process done fairly well. Who knows, you might actually want to interview five or more people instead of the required three!

Write it up
Once you have finished all of the interviews, compile the data and present it in a brief report that you will post to the discussion board. Include the suggestions that were made that you plan to implement and your justification for doing so along with the ones that you will not be incorporating in your site. Again, provide a justification for those as well. The paper will be about a page (500-750 words).