Protocol Usability

Protocol: 2017 Economic Census Usability Evaluation

Thank you for your time today. My name is XX and I work with the United States Census Bureau. My research team evaluates how easy or difficult Census products are to use. What works well, we keep. When potential users, such as you, have difficulty with something, we have an opportunity to fix it.

Before we start, there is a form I would like you to read and sign. It explains the purpose of today’s session and your rights as a participant. It also informs you that we would like to record the session to get an accurate record of your feedback. Only those of us connected with the project will review the recording and it will be used solely for research purposes. Your name will not be associated with the recording or any of the other data collected during the session.

[Hand consent form; give time for participant to read and sign; sign own name and date, start recording.]

Thank you.

I am going to give you a little background about what we will be working on today. Today you will be helping us to evaluate the design of the online 2017 Economic Census instrument. The survey is in the early stages of development and we are interested in obtaining feedback to ensure that it has all of the information and features needed.

To do this, we will have you complete various tasks. These will be consistent with tasks you would normally complete if you were requested to complete the actual survey in the future. There are no right or wrong answers, we are mainly interested in your impressions both good and bad about your experience. I did not create the instrument so please feel free to share both positive and negative reactions.

While you are completing the tasks I would like for you to think aloud. Essentially what this means is to verbally express what you are doing and experiencing as you use the site.

I may ask you additional questions about some of the screens you see today and of your overall impressions.

Do you have any questions before we begin? Ok let’s get started. I want you to read each task question and use the website to complete the task. Once you have completed each task just let me know by saying finished or done- then we can move on to the next task.

[Hand participant tasks- have them complete tasks one at a time]

During the interview, note participants questions or signs of difficulty.

Once all tasks are complete:

Next I would like for you to rate your overall experience using the site to complete those tasks.

[Hand the participant the Satisfaction questionnaire]

[Administer debriefing questions by showing screens from PowerPoint and asking probes related to each screen- particularly screens that the participant initially had difficulty with during the session.]

This concludes our session. Thank you for your time and valuable feedback.