Various Demographic Area Pretesting Activities

Usability Testing

FACILITATOR:

You have been recruited as a usability participant to help provide U.S. Census Bureau with feedback on a new website. The session will be run by members of Accenture’s User Experience Agency, who will gladly answer any questions you may have about the session. We will observe you and record information about how you work with the system. We will also ask you to answer questions in regards to your thoughts on the system.

You will be asked to comment on a variety of subjects relating to the system and will be given a survey to complete for additional research information. It is important to note that you are not being evaluated in any way. We expect the session to last about 1 hour. Your participation is voluntary and your answers will remain strictly confidential.

Pre-test questions

FACILITATOR: Before we begin, please look at this home page without clicking on anything; I am going to ask you some questions about this page:

Pre-test questions should be read to the participant by the facilitator.

1. What is the purpose of this website?
   
   

2. What organization is responsible for this website? How can you tell?
   
   

3. Is it clear to you whom this website is designed for?
   
   

4. What kinds of information would you go to this website to find?

Ask participant to review the main buckets of the homepage without clicking on the page and asked what kinds of information they would find in the following areas:

1. Teach

2. Learn

3. Research

4. Standards

Testing Scenarios

FACILITATOR: We will now begin the automated part of this usability evaluation. You will see a box appear with a scenario. Once you have read and understand the scenario please click on the START button to begin the scenario. You may click on anything on the screen to complete this scenario. Once you have finished click on the End Task button.

1. You teach 8^th grade math and would like to find exercises that illustrate linear models by using real economic data. Where would you find this exercise?

Expected Paths	Notes
Home  Teach  8th Grade

PROBES TO ASK PARTICIPANT:

- What is the grade level, topic, and standard for this activity?

- What does the term "aligned to" mean to you?

- What does the term and "associated with" mean to you?

FACILITATOR GIVES PARTICIPANT TIME TO CAREFULLY READ THE CONTENT ON THE PAGE:

Would an activity like this be appropriate for you classroom?

Would you be able to adapt an activity like this for the needs of your students?

2. You would like to find another exercise like this current activity. Where would you look for this exercise?

Expected Paths	Notes
Home  Teach  Grade 8  Associated Content in left nav

FACILITATOR GIVES PARTICIPANT TIME TO CAREFULLY READ THE CONTENT ON THE PAGE:

Would an activity like this be appropriate for you classroom?

Would you be able to adapt an activity like this for the needs of your students?

3. You would like to find another exercise that will help illustrate the 8 SP. 3 standard. Where would you look for this exercise?

Expected Paths	Notes
Activity Page  Standard link in the activity Or Standards  Middle School Math  Grade 8

NOTE FOR FACILITATOR:

Does the participant use the standards link in the activity or use the Standards tab in the main navigation?

FACILITATOR GIVES PARTICIPANT TIME TO CAREFULLY READ THE CONTENT ON THE PAGE:

Would an activity like this be appropriate for you classroom?

Would you be able to adapt an activity like this for the needs of your students?

4. You would like to use this activity in your class. How would you find a class room appropriate version of this exercise?

Expected Paths	Notes
Activity  Use This Activity Now

PROBE:

What is this difference between the instructions for the activity on this page and the instructions for the activity on the previous page?

Is this material appropriate for your students?

How would use materials like this (e.g. assign it for homework, use it in the classroom)?

Are there changes that you would want to make to this to make it more usable for your students?

End of Session Follow-up Questions

FACILITATOR: Now that we have completed the automated part of this test I am going to ask you some questions about what you have seen.

What kinds of information will you find in the following areas?

1. Teach

2. Research

3. Collaborate

4. Standards

Post-Test questions should be read by the facilitator to the participant.

1. What is your general reaction to the site?
   
   
   
   

2. What did you like best about the site?
   
   

3. What did you like least about the site?
   
   

4. Is there anything that you feel is missing on this site?
   
   

5. If you were to describe this site to a colleague, what would you say?
   
   
   

6. Do you have any other final comments or questions?

FACILITATOR: I will now have you complete a small survey about your experiences using this website.

Thank you for your participation.