Scoping the test

Before you plan your test procedure, you need to scope the test, that is, define the focus, criteria and objectives of the test.

Focus
The focus of a test may be narrow or extensive. For example, a test may be just a test of the appropriateness of labels very early in a design process, or it may be a total user trial at the end of the prototype that evaluates all aspects of useability. For example:

Analyse the present site useability : its content, navigation and interface
design
Analyse and provide comparative documentation of competitor sites (locally and internationally)

Criteria
The test criteria are the benchmark principles against which the site will be evaluated. It may be necessary to evaluate a website against the initial development brief to see whether all aspects of the brief were implemented. You may need to analyse the website's performance when compared to competitor sites. The criteria may derive from a more generalised set, for example, the ten heuristic principles outlined by Jakob Nielsen (see Sources).

Objectives
The objectives of the evaluation also need defining. You may need to test the useability in order to eliminate any problems for users navigating and using the site. The objectives will be related to the focus of the test.

Visit a number of sites and choose two websites to test. Send the URLs to your trainer for approval. Scope the evaluation for both project websites. Include the focus, criteria and objectives of the test.

(See Project brief for more information on the kinds of sites you can choose from.)

Sources

Expert testing