Choosing Participants: Case Study

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Choosing Participants Tester 1: Jacob Peterson My first usability tester was Jacob Peterson, studying Interpersonal Communication. Jacob is a 19-year-old male; a sophomore at Northwest. Jacob is someone that lives off-campus and does not eat very many meals on campus, so he can watch what he eats. In addition to that, he works out about three times a week with his friends playing games and is involved in intramural basketball at the recreation center. Jacob categorized himself as a high-experience user of the internet, spending approximately 28 hours a week online; about 80% of which on social media and 20% online browsing. The assignment was to find testers that are reasonable; in this case meaning that they would think out loud during …show more content…

The test began at 5:24 pm, meaning that in combination with the tinted windows in the space created a very dark exterior of the building and the dim light from the lamps on either side, lit primarily by the tester's laptop. The tester's phone was on the ledge near his arm, and he would occasionally check the notification that popped up or when the site had difficulty processing his request, but he mainly focused on the tasks. There were about ten others spread out in the area, but occasionally outbursts made it difficult for myself and the tester to …show more content…

Although the usability test I conducted was at 6:18 pm, there is potential that during the day the sun would hinder the tester's ability to accurately view details, colors or photographs on her browser. Because the window was closed, and it was in the evening, the tester's room was lit up by artificial lighting on her ceiling. The user sat on her bed and used a stand to prop up her laptop to keep it from resting on her lap. Although her roommate was also at the apartment, only occasional murmurs were heard to distract the tester from the task at hand. The tester's phone also wasn't in the