The effect of testing location on usability testing performance, participant stress levels, and subjective testing experience

    Authors

    C. Andrzejczak;D. H. Liu

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Syst. Softw.

    Keywords

    Usability testing; Synchronous remote testing; Critical incident method; Anxiety; Stress; Computer Science, Software Engineering; Computer Science, Theory &; Methods

    Abstract

    The effect of testing location on usability test elements such as stress levels and user experience is not clear. A comparison between traditional lab testing and synchronous remote testing was conducted. The present study investigated two groups of users in remote and traditional settings. Within each group participants completed two tasks, a simple task and a complex task. The dependent measures were task time taken, number of critical incidents reported, and user-reported anxiety score. Task times differed significantly between the physical location condition; this difference was not meaningful for real world application, and likely introduced by overhead regarding synchronous remote testing methods. Critical incident reporting counts did not differ in any condition. No significant differences were found in user reported stress levels. Subjective assessments of the study and interface also did not differ significantly. Study findings suggest a similar user testing experience exists for remote and traditional laboratory usability testing. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Systems and Software

    Volume

    83

    Issue/Number

    7

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1258

    Last Page

    1266

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000278656500015

    ISSN

    0164-1212

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