LIS455 Assignments and Projects

The class contains three assignments and one semester-long team project as the term project. All students are required to receive training of the usability tools before conducting the term project. There are three class sessions devoted for the term project arrangements and report: the first is site supervisors’ presentation; the second the mid point project status report; and the third the final class project presentation. Check the course schedule for the due dates.

The site supervisors and their respective websites/systems are:

• Casey E. Davis | Project Manager, American Archive of Public Broadcasting, WGBH Educational Foundation | Site: American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• Eben English | Boston Public Library, Web Services Developer | Site: Digital Commonwealth
• Callan Bignoli | Web Coordinator, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners | Massachusetts Libraries
• Mary Delaney | Digital Content Specialist, Online Communication & Design, Simmons College | Simmons College Website
• Deirdre Costello | Sr. User Experience Researcher at EBSCO Information Services | Site: LaunchPad Mobile App

Late Policy:
Note: Without proper excuse, late assignments would get 2 points deducted per day after the due day.

I. Assignments: (50%)

Assignment 1 is a pre-requisite for performing the final project. It involves receiving training from the Usability Research Assistant on the use of the Lab devices (including the portable usability lab tools) and the Morae suite software. The proof of the completion of Assignment 1 is through the lab record of the completion of such activity.

Assignment 4 is for doctoral students only. Master’s students may complete it as an extra-credit assignment.

Details of all assignments will be available on individual assignment sheets.

II. Term Project: Usability Testing of a Web-based Information System (40%)

The usability term project involves students in class working in teams with external organizations in performing usability testing of a website of the target organization. The purpose of the project is to help you acquire the knowledge and skills in performing usability testing studies, and in the meantime, to provide suggestions for improvement in the website design to a given organization. Local organizations that are involved in the project will benefit from learning the results of the usability tests to aid to the possible revisions and changes in the design and content elements of their websites/tools based on real users’ input and their task performance.

For this project, you will work with a site supervisor of the hosting organization to develop usability testing scenarios and pre-/post- test interview questions, establish testing procedures, recruiting participants, and conducting the usability testing sessions. A usability testing session takes place in Simmons Usability Lab made up of a observer’s room and a subject room with computers running Morae suite software. The participant sits in the subject room to complete tasks on a computer monitor through using a website. Morae Recorder will record the participant’s screen movement, keystroke, and facial expression. One team member will be the moderator, who sits by the participant to talk the participant through the scenario. Other members of the team will work in the observer’s room to take notes through Morae Observer and observe the participant through a one way mirror. The session typically starts and ends with a pre-test and post-test interview where participants are asked about online use experience and their impression and satisfaction of the website. They are also asked to offer ideas for site improvement. After the tests, you will perform data analysis using Morae Manager software where the quantitative data such as time taking to complete tasks, number of pages viewed, number of clicks, etc will be produced. Further analysis on the levels of difficulty in completing the tasks will be performed. The interview data will be transcribed and coded to understand participants’ reaction and preferences of the Website.

Each external organization has a designated site supervisor for this project. The site supervisor will work with the student team to oversee the project development from the beginning to the end. This includes developing the scenarios and interview questions for the usability testing, assisting with the participant recruitment, participating in both the mid-point report and the final report. The organization may provide incentives for participants. The supervisor will be involved in the evaluation of student performance.

Details will be available on the project sheet.

III. Participation: (10%)

Class participation include attendance of class sessions, contributing to the class discussion and presentations, and participating and contributing in every step of the usability term project.

IV. Course Grading Scale

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© Rong Tang 2016