Usability Test Plan of the Sales Management System - Assignment Example

Project Usability Test Plan Specification Version mm/dd/yyyy Version: x.xx Prepared for: Project Manager Project Manager Department Prepared by: Document Author’s Name, Title Document Author’s Department Revisions Version Primary Author(s) Description of Version Date Completed Usability test plan Draft 1 Full Name First draft of the usability test plan 5/04/15 Usability Test plan Draft 2 Second draft of the usability test plan TBD Final Draft Final Draft of the usability test Plan TBD Contents 1Introduction 1 1.1Usability Test Purpose 1 1.2Description of System to be Tested 1 1.3System Design Usability Goals 2 1.4Supporting Materials 3 1.5Definitions and Acronyms 3 2Usability Test Purpose 4 2.1Test Purpose 4 2.2Usability Goals 4 2.3Usability Concerns 5 3Target Audience 7 3.1Participant Selection 7 3.2Participant Preparation 8 3.3Participant Orientation 8 3.4Participant Performance Evaluation Process 8 3.5Participant Debriefing Process 9 4Data Analysis Methodology 10 5Usability Test Deliverables 11 6Resource Time Allotment 12 7Test Schedule 13 8Usability Testing Assumptions 14 9References 15 1 Introduction After determining the usability evaluation plan, a test plan should be prepared to effect the usability testing. Consequently, this document is an outline for the plan to conduct a usability test of the sales management system to be adopted by the company. 1.1 Usability Test Purpose The main purpose of the usability test is to determine and predict the performance of the user interface in meeting the varied needs of the users of the system. The test measures the effectiveness of the user interface as it is and determines the changes needed to improve the user interface. The usability testing will investigate the sales system user interface prototype and use the results of the test to rectify and refine the user interface of the application. The usability test is basically directed at determining the functionality of the interface. The usability test is aimed at addressing the usability issues such as learnability, ease of use, efficiency and effectiveness among others. 1.2 Description of System to be Tested The software system will be a sales system for an online based business enterprise similar to eBay and Amazon. The system’s goals is to simplify the customer’s experience as well as the employees productivity by providing tools to ease the acquisition of the desired products that would otherwise be done manually and collected physically. By doing so the system would offer the customers an exciting and convenient shopping experience while at the same time simplifying the work of the respective employees. More specifically, the system allows the customer to maintain and manage their own shopping list and their payment methods more efficiently. A client can simply make purchases from the comfort of his or her home and use their credit card to make payment. Goods are delivered once the payment has been verified by the accounts department. The system also helps the inventory clerks to maintain accurate inventory of all items available. Communication with the client and the company will be done via the online platform and through the email provided by the customer. Fill in forms and selection panes are used through each stage of product cycle from inventory to purchase. The customer also provides their details through fill in forms and makes selection of products to purchase through the selection panels. Most importantly, the system contains a relational database where the product details and the customer details are stored. 1.3 System Design Usability Goals The sales management system user interface was designed with the following system usability goals in mind; 1. To allow staff members to easily define and maintain records of products in the inventory and the user data and information 2. Allow staff members to efficiently and effectively complete transactions initiated by customers. 3. To enable customers to register, provide accurate data and information to be stored in the database. And allow them to search through product catalogues to select their products. 4. Allow customers to efficiently carry out transactions and purchase their product of choice. Specific and measureable usability goals are outlined in the usability goals section of this document. 1.4 Supporting Materials Sales management system –SRP-002: the software Design specification document. Sales management system-UEP-003- Usability evaluation plan document. 1.5 Definitions and Acronyms User : A  person  who  can  interact  with  the  software   can  be  an  employee  or  end  user  (customer). Interface: a platform particularly the front end that creates the interaction between the user and the system. FrontEnd: The interface that is used by the customer and the employees to carry out their activities in the system. Backend: contains the database storing the users data and the inventory. Inventory : A  detailed  list  of  goods  and  materials  that  are  in  stock. Database (DB): An organized (structured) body of related information. 2 Usability Test Purpose 2.1 Test Purpose The sales management system is aimed at improving the user experience in the management of product inventory and carrying out transactions by the client. The new system is yet to be implemented therefore the interface will be new to many users and thus it is important to carry out a usability test and rectify major concerns before full implementation. This usability test will identify the problems in the new interface that will have an impact on the ease-of-learning, ease-of-use the general user satisfaction. Essentially, the usability test will include testing of administrative interface used by the employees and staff of the organization to manage clients and inventory and the client interface used by the end user to register, browse product catalogue and make purchases. 2.2 Usability Goals The main goals of the usability testing are to determine the effectiveness of the user interface in meeting the user needs and attaining user satisfaction. The qualitative and quantitative goals are aimed at addressing the usability concerns. As mentioned earlier, the interface comprise of the administrative interface for the staff and employees and the end user or customer interface. For the administrative interface the usability test will have the following goals; Goal1a: Staff members and employees should be able to complete basic tasks such as product registration and definition, inventory management and completion of the transactions initiated by the customer. Goal1b: The administrative users should be able to easily learn the new interface and be able to use it to perform the tasks mention in 1a. Goal1c: The administrative users should be able to locate and use tools for accomplishing administrative tasks. These will include ability to locate the product definition form, save the defined products, associate each product with the respective diagrams to go to the product catalogue. Goal1d: The administrative users will be in a position to understand the interface as the items in the interface are logically organized. The customer/client /public interface will also have particular usability testing goals that include: Goal2a: Public users should be in a position to easily register in the system and be able to navigate through the various sections of the interface without difficulty. They should be able to locate the requisite tools for accomplishing the various tasks. Goal2b: The public users should be in a position to search for the products through the product catalogue in an efficient and timely fashion. Goal2c: Transactions for selected products is sensitive, therefore, the users should be in a position to carry out transactions in an efficient and secure manner. 2.3 Usability Concerns Some of the usability concerns for the two category interfaces include; Will users using different set of system units with different hardware and software specifications experience the same efficiency while using the interface? Users will probably have different experiences depending on the computer systems they are using. This will be evident during submission of filled forms and searching through the product catalogue. Other usability concerns will be the ability to learn and understand the interface. Different users will take varied time and speed to learn and effectively use the system. The terminology and labeling of the interface could be another concern for both the administrative and public users. . 3 Target Audience The users of the interface are broadly classified into two categories; 1) Administrative users: this category of users includes the employees such as inventory clerks, sales personnel and accounts clerks among others. This category of users is mainly in charge of maintaining the inventory, effecting the transactions and maintaining customer records. 2) Public users: the pubic users are the customers who will use the system to make purchases for desired products. These users are required to register in the system and provide cridentials that could be used to make payments for purchased goods. 3.1 Participant Selection Participants will be selected based on various characteristics that are considered to be critical differentiators. The user testing participants are selected to reflect the following characteristics. Experience; For this purpose an experienced inventory clerk, sales personnel and an accounts clerk will participate. Two members of the general public such as a student with no experience will participate. Education All participants must have some college education as minimum education level but computing knowledge is not mandatory. However, they must have some knowledge on computer use. 3.2 Participant Preparation Participants will be taken through an introduction session upon arrival at the testing site. The participants will be given a brief introduction of the project, they will also be required to sign a consent form for participating in the usability test. They will also be required to sign a release form to allow us to use the recorded sessions of the test. 3.3 Participant Orientation Once the participants have been prepared, the participants will be given another brief preview of the user interface. This is mainly done orally depending on the category of users. They will be briefly interviewed to ascertain their level of education and computer use. The participants will be given instructions on their roles and purpose in the usability test. To ease their work, the users are given detailed instructions on what they are supposed to do and how they are to go about it. 3.4 Participant Performance Evaluation Process Performance of each user is evaluated on a particular criterion. These manly include the time spent to perform a particular task, the ease or difficulty in performing these tasks and the ability to complete the basic tasks associated with each user. The usability testing personnel will make observatory notes as the users continue with their tasks. Observations such as confirmation of completion of tasks and unexpected events during the usability testing. 3.5 Participant Debriefing Process After performance evaluation, when the participant has completed the intended task or ran out of time or complete failure to complete the task; the participant will be debriefed through issuance of a statement that will include; A questionnaire that is used to collect the behavioral, demographic and affective data. The participants will be asked to verbally state their experience while using the interface. An in-depth interview will also serve to collect data on experience and ways that could be used to improve the user interface. 4 Data Analysis Methodology Measures collected during the usability test include: The amount of time that is taken to complete ever task The percentage of participants that completed each task The ratio of participants who completed and those that did not complete the various tasks. Number and type of errors encountered in the usability testing. The number of negative and positive statements made by the participants. These data and information is mainly collected through use of questionnaires, In-depth interviews, video and audio recording and observation. The overall feeling about the user interface is determined through questionnaires aimed at determining the number of users liking the interface. The likert scale is used to measure rating of the various sections of the interface based on the post evaluation questionnaire. The results from the usability testing will be documented in a report as a deliverable. 5 Usability Test Deliverables Once the usability testing exercise is concluded, and analysis is done. A usability testing report is prepared that details the problems and challenges identified during the test. The report will have the test results, observations and recommendations that will be submitted to the developers for the necessary corrections. The report will form a basis for subsequent changes to the user interface. The report is submitted together with the highlight video. 6 Resource Time Allotment The following table shows an estimate for the total resource time requirements for the usability testing; Activity Total Resource Time Planning the usability testing and creating the testing materials 2 Logistics 1 Running the test 10 Analyzing data 2 Preparation of final report and review 1 Presentation with video highlights 1 Total Time 17 Days 7 Test Schedule This usability testing will be conducted towards the end of April and beginning of May, 2015. The first week of this period will be dedicated to recruiting participants and developing testing materials. The following two weeks will be dedicated for conducting the usability tests and the last two weeks will be dedicated for data analysis and preparation of the final report accompanied by the video highlights of the usability testing sessions. 8 Usability Testing Assumptions During the usability testing process, the following assumptions will be made; i) Users with computing knowledge and experience will require less time to complete their tasks and will be less dissatisfied with the user interface. ii) Administrative users will present more dissatisfaction with the various sections of the interface. Mostly with the ease-of- use and learnability. iii) There will be slight disparities in the challenges faced by the administrative and public users. iv) Further testing of the interface will be required in the future due to the limited initial testing. 9 References Sauro, J. (2011). Measuring usability with the system usability scale (SUS). Read More