Andrew's Usability in the Real World: Who are our Users?
Determining a products real-world users ...
"While the usability profession often discusses the 'how' and 'why' of studying users, we too rarely discuss the 'who'. Who should you include in a usability study?
It's an important question. So much user-centred research relies on small samples, making it especially important to choose the sample wisely. More and more, usability people are asked to comment on whether a product is likely to be used (see my earlier column: Predictive Usability), and poorly chosen samples can lead to circular reasoning.
For example, imagine a company developing a new gadget asks you to study its usability. They tell you that their marketing department has decided on two key market segments: Young Funs and Old Grumpies. You recruit according to this profile, and find that Young Funs like the gadget, while Old Grumpies wouldn't use it in a million years. In many companies, this would be taken to mean young people will use the product, and older people won't, and so only the results from the younger people will be taken into account." continued ... (Via Usability News)
"While the usability profession often discusses the 'how' and 'why' of studying users, we too rarely discuss the 'who'. Who should you include in a usability study?
It's an important question. So much user-centred research relies on small samples, making it especially important to choose the sample wisely. More and more, usability people are asked to comment on whether a product is likely to be used (see my earlier column: Predictive Usability), and poorly chosen samples can lead to circular reasoning.
For example, imagine a company developing a new gadget asks you to study its usability. They tell you that their marketing department has decided on two key market segments: Young Funs and Old Grumpies. You recruit according to this profile, and find that Young Funs like the gadget, while Old Grumpies wouldn't use it in a million years. In many companies, this would be taken to mean young people will use the product, and older people won't, and so only the results from the younger people will be taken into account." continued ... (Via Usability News)
Who are our users?
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