Above: Our class divided into smaller groups, and each one of us had to conduct a usability test on an oven. Above pictured is a General Electric oven found in Maple Hall Lounge 402E that we used for our testing.
Product in mind, my small group of 3 had to conduct a usability test on an oven. In class, we planned out 3 practical tasks that our 3 users could do to show how user-friendly this oven is. Along with that, we determined the 3 types of data we needed to collect from each task in order to compare the efficiency of each task through each user-- a measurement of comparison for each task.
We ended up choosing basic tasks such as preheating and moving racks, but we also decided to spice up the traditional window-check task by placing an eye chart in the oven. Meeting our users at Maple Hall, we introduced them to our project and explained their tasks. Respectively, we collected the data.
Above: We planned our tasks according to what an oven is traditionally used for such as preheating and baking, but we wanted to push the limit of the window visibility and opted for a full eye chart to see how visible small details could be seen through the oven window.
This usability testing project brought up multiple questions regarding the general use of everyday things and their reasons behind design. At first I found it strange to look at the oven and try to figure out why it was designed that way, but after conducting the tests, I was able to see it objectively by seeing how my users interacted with it.
There was a little bit of confusion regarding the second task that involved the eye test (some users thought it worked as an actual eye test and we were testing their vision), so perhaps next time, I would emphasize once again the fact that we are testing the object and not the user.
Overall, this project was very enjoyable since I had never participated nor conducted a usability testing experiment. I had always been exposed to one method of using an oven: mine. It could be difficult to distinguish whether an object is of good design until a third-party of no experience tries to use it. It really opened my eyes to how the things around me are designed, which was the most fascinating part.
When we created our powerpoint, we also created a voiceover presentation to go along with it, linked below:
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