Handling Problems During Tests, and Debriefing Users
Some people may have great difficulty completing the task.
(See this staged video fragment.)
(video)
- You should not let them suffer indefinitely.
You may decide to help them get over a difficult step,
or let them stop before finishing the task.
- You may account for failure in bottom-line data by assigning
that test a very high time and/or large number of errors.
After completing (or failing) the experiment you may wish to ask
questions about why users made certain decisions.
- Such debriefing questions often provide little information:
users no longer remember why they did things.
- Debriefing questions should not be suggestive:
when users don't know the answer by themselves,
they are eager to say what you suggest.
- You may take users back to the interface to ask them for
comments on specific features of the interface.