Usability Research in the South Pacific

I have been unable to find any articles or initiatives concerning Usability in the South Pacific. New Zealand is the closest, though they are outside the scope of the research. Nevetheless, I will list them here.

New Zealand

• Waikato U.
• Bindu Design
• Otago CHINZ 03

Summary of Usability Tests conducted at USP DFL centres

a collection of notes from all the Usability tests conducted during the NmInTheSouthPacific project. I conducted tests in Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Nauru. These were collected from the site by Shalen Gounden

Screenshot of software tested

Usability Tests in Kiribati, NmKiribati

Usability TEP02

• 4 November, 2003, Kiribati CS student, uses computer everyday
• The student acted unsure, but seemed to click confidently and without error through the tasks
• rolled over START ANIMS, paused then hit INSTRUCTIONS
• after a quick look, hit the BLUE ENTRY LINKS
• tapped NEXT STEP, then SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• Hit the PULLDOWN, but first paused over it and asked "Next?"
• used pulldown properly, selected another animation and hit PLAY
• Audio didn't work even with speakers, perhaps because they were playing MP3's through them

Usability TEP02

• 5 November, 2003, Kiribati student, uses computer everyday
• This student was very methodical, reading every detail, asking for reassurance, and going through the program without error
• read everything before using the mouse
• asked what he should do
• rolled over START ANIM, then clicked INSTRUCTIONS
• went methodically through instructions
• hit START ANIM
• rolled over PLAY, hesitated, then hit SHOW ENTIRE
• hit REPEAT THIS STEP
• at prompt, hit PULLDOWN, then SHOW ENTIRE
• continued to play after it was over

Usability TEP02

• 5 November, 2003, S.I. student in Kiribati, uses computer occasionally, and only for email, writes assignments by hand
• This student was very insecure, but managed to use the program properly with nothing more than encouraging prompts
• didn't know how to load CD
• tried to click NEXT DECORATION
• said "I have no idea"
• clicked START ANIM
• hit PLAY
• hit REPEAT THIS STEP
• hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• when I pointed to the pulldown, she used it properly
• hit NEXT STEP (not PLAY)
• hit NEXT STEP, and continued trying once it faded
• when that didn't work several clicks, hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING

Usability TEP02

• 5 November, 2003, Kiribati USP Centre, Foundation student who uses computer once a week to find assignments on studenet
• The student had repeated difficulties determing what was active, though knew how to use the dropwdown, and knew that a faded button meant it was no longer clickable. This leads me to believe that the difficulties were due to images that looked hot (demo buttons, etc.) and past experience (usp logo being hot in studenet) rather than misunderstanding difference between what represent hot or not.
• tried to click the USP logo; kept trying; kept trying
• then tried to click the NEXT DISPLAY
• when this failed a few times, clicked INSTRUCTIONS
• tried to hit play in instructions, didn't work, so
• hit LINK to got o animations
• hit NEXT STEP, NEXT STEP
• when done (knew that faded button was unclickable), hit PULLDOWN
• scrolled through all choices, back to bisecting a line, then hit PLAY

Usability TEP02

• CS student, 7 November 2003, Kiribati USP Centre
• This student proceeded without pause and used the program without error
• hit INSTRUCTIONS
• hit START ANIM
• hit DORPDOWN
• hit PLAY
• hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• asked about audio

Usability Academic Systems Demo

• 4 November, 2003, Kiribati CS student, uses computer everyday
• The student went very methodically through this program, though didn't seem to notice much beyond the main body, and was clearly turned on to the hand-icon as indicating hotspots
• rolled over a block, but shown no hand, so decided it wasn't a button and didn't click
• later confused when a block without a hand later turned out to be a button
• she read through the entire instructions, slowly, but didn't notice the arrow on the right (which the instructions said to click to begin) for a long time
• once began, she progressed through the lesson step by step with the arrows, never even noticing the side buttons
• when I pointed out the side buttons, she went to the next one in line, and clicked through them all in order

Usability Solomons Islands, NmSolomons Islands

Usability Overview

• Deliberate, read alot (including, in some cases, the copyright!)
• sometimes repetitive in mistakes
• beginners cannot be expected to differentiate
• between Operating System and application (so go FULLSCREEN but make minimize and quit obvious)
• between left and right click (so recap both to left click)
• Long contemplative periods: much longer than i was used to. Often I would think they weren't answering because of the long gap, but they did answer
• No Freezers: I never encountered any freezers except when watched by peers (this may have to do with my instructions to 'play around')

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• read everything, then clicked START ANIMS
• read text
• tried to use the tool
• clicked DROPDOWN
• read choices to himself
• long time looking through every choice
• chose one, then paused, it didn't change so he chose another
• "Oh, I have to click Next Step before I go to another one"
• once chosen, he clicked next step once, then went back to DROP DOWN
• selected another, then hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• "when I saw the questions (steps), I though I might use this (the campus icon) to draw"

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• tried to click NEXT
• then hit START ANIMS
• went immediately to SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• at finish hit, SHOW ENTIRE again
• then played with PREVIOUS STEP and NEXT STEP
• tried to use the compass icon
• hit PLAY
• hit pulldown
• read through pull downs
• chose one, hit PLAY
• hit NEXT STEP

Tep02 Usability

• 21 October
• A beginner, very careful, read everything (BE CAREFUL OF UNNECESSARY STUFF), tried to click everywhere
• "I don't know how to use that (computer)"
• played with Microsoft, icons at bottom, rolling over and then clicking clock
• clicked randomly in white space
• tried to click "next" on splash
• read the copyright, the entire copyright
• after I told him "these are both buttons" he clicked instructions
• read instructions without moving mouse
• then hit START ANIMS
• on animation screen, just waited and read

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• hit NEXT after rolling over INSTRUCTIONS
• that did nothing so hit INSTRUCTIONS
• clicked blue text link to start
• hit pulldown, scrolled, read through each option
• chose and hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• rolled over all buttons and hit SHOW ENTIRE again

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• "what if we don't know how to use PC"
• hit NEXT
• right-clicked, stuck, right-clicked again, even after I showed her the left button
• hit NEXT, NEXT (this is all on the splash page)
• Hit INSTRUCTIONS
• tried to hit PLAY on instructions page
• hit LINK, surprised that it worked
• read animation page text
• hit play

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• tried to hit NEXT, then START ANIMS
• hit PLAY, PLAY, PLAY
• hit NEXT STEP
• hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• hit AUDIO

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• 2 students working together
• they talk quietly before touching the mouse
• "do I" and pointed to the mouse
• tried to click NEXT on splash page
• hit INSTRUCTIONS
• rolled over blue links
• rolled over all 4 instructions, in order, while reading, then up to the blue link, and waited there until his friend told him to click it
• hit PLAY
• hit NEXT STEP after checking with friend
• hit NEXT STEP
• hit PULLLDOWN, made a selection
• hit PLAY, then NEXT STEP, NEXT STEP, each time checking with friend

TEP02 Usability

• 21 October
• rolled over START ANIMATIONS, & instructions, then hit INSTRUCTIONS
• On instructions, tried to hit pulldown, "this one no work?"
• read, rolled over all instructions in order, then hit START ANIMATIONS
• Tried to use compass "this thing no do anything?"
• hit "play"
• NEXT STEP, NEXT STEP
• read text
• hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING
• hit PULLDOWN, selected another option after scrolling down

Tep02 Usability

• 22 October
• hit INSTRUCTIONS
• read INSTRUCTIONS, rolling over each
• tried to click the buttons
• hit START ANIMS
• hit PULLDOWNMENUS
• read the step
• hit SHOW ENTIRE DRAWING

Sarnil Prasad: Datec Web Designer, NmDatec

Usability Points

• no ongoing usability testing: "usability testing is too expensive"
• people seem to use the web like they do Microsoft Applications
• http://www.parliament.gov.fj/http://www.parliament.gov.fj : even though the CMS can output to Word, PDF, Excel, etc, the parliament were leery of switching over from their ?WordPerfect. The CMS was designed to functio9n much like ?WordPerfect or Microsoft word, with a simple rich-text editor with Windows icons
• people double-click (CMDA Personal Wealth Calculator)

Usability Concern, NmInternetfiji

• "Very little usability done in this country"

Usability Tests in Samoa, NmSamoa

• I was struck by the contrast between Samoa and Nauru. In Samoa, the users were very direct and systematic. They knew what was hot, even in confusing scenarios, and when confused they stopped and read, or rolled over, and then snipered, rather than the more spreadsheet approach to confusion I noted in Nauru.

TEP02 Usability

• 8 October, 2003
• Very direct, quick responses
• hit INSTRUCTIONS quickly
• read the instructions
• clicked BLUE UNDERLINE
• hit PLAY, NEXT, NEXT, SHOW ENTIRE
• PREVIOUS, DROP DOWN

TEP02 Usability

• Direct and immediate
• START ANIMATIONS
• read then NEXT STEP
• NEXT STEP> SHOW ENTIRE
• PULLDOWN, NEXT STEP

TEP02 Usability

• hit INSTRUCTIONS after rolling over START
• read the instructions
• tried to do what the instructions said on the instruction page itself
• "oh" and then hit START ANIMATIONS
• used pull down, then hit NEXT STEP

TEP02 Usability

• Direct immediate responses
• hit START ANIMS
• read text
• NEXT STEP, NEXT STEP
• stepped back
• knew how to use dropdown

TEP02 Usability

• read all the text, then clicked SHOW ANIMATIONS
• used pull-down, read all the choices, then hit PLAY

TEP02 Usability

• hit START ANIMS immediately
• hit PLAY
• knew how to use the pulldown
• seemed immediately comfortable with everything

Usability Test in Nauru, NmNauru

Overall Usability Summary

• headphones must be included with CD-ROMs, as although computers have soundcards, they do not have speakers, nor headphones
• Overall, the Nauruan students were explorers, clicking around rather than freezing when they were confused. However, there was a marked difference between continuing Ed/ "off the street" students, who froze up, and others.
• buttons got clicks, underlined words did not
• escape routes are very important: students wanted to know how to get back to instructions, how to quit
• clear differentiation between active and inactive is necessary, more pronounced than in UK and US tests
• allow immediate action on instructions

Usability on Timeline

• This test showed a clear need for a dictionary or clearer terms, and showed that additional differentiation (beyond typical US/UK levels) is needed between active and inactive objects. It was good to see the student exploring with the mouse rather than freezing when confused

1. "explain what BP means"
2. "make it more obvious that the controller is the active thing"
3. student had trouble figuring out what was active, so he just clicked around searching
4. once clear on the concept, he really liked the visualization, "now, that really makes sense" -WT 1 Oct 2003

Usability on Timeline

1. clicked around searching for active objects
2. When in screen clicks failed, tried the menu (inline then menu?)
3. Does this make sense? "No!"

Usability TEP02

This test showed a preference for buttons over underlined links, and made it clear that it is very important to differentiate quite powerfully between active and inactive objects

1. clicked button not underline
2. "give a way to re-enter the instruction page" (escape route) -WT 1 Oct 2003
3. Student kept trying to try out the instructions on the buttons on the instruction page, though these buttons were inactive, for demo purposes only.

Usability TEP02

This test showed a preference for buttons over underlined links, and made it clear that it is very important to differentiate quite powerfully between active and inactive objects, and reiterated that we need obvious escape routes

1. clicked instructions
2. tried to use demo buttons during instructions
3. had troubles getting in, but once in, worked it fine
4. clicked around, experimented
5. clicked button not underline
6. "How do I quit?" (give escape route)

Usability TEP02

This test showed a preference for buttons over underlined links. Although she had difficulties figuring out how to use it, she was an explorer, clicking and trying until she was able to use the program. Although she did not recognize the pulldown, she knew how to use it once I pointed it out.

• clicked instructions
• tried to click buttons on instruction page
• finally, after trying everything else, clicked START ANIMATIONS
• in all her clicks, never really noticed the blue underlined links
• tried to use the compass
• didn't realize the pulldown was active, but once I showed it to her she knew how to use it

Usability TEP02

This user, after some initial troubles differentiating between what was active or not in the entry page, used the actual program itself without flaw.

• tried to click the decorative graphic that had the word 'next' in it
• pressed "start animations"
• hit play
• found next
• at end of anima, found drop down and selected another, then hit "next step"
• asked how to exit the program

Usability TEP02

In a nutshell, this user was not an explorer, but a cautious user. She uses the computer daily, mostly excel. She approached the program in a very studied and cautious fashion, and became flustered at the long list of choices, saying she was confused and ending the session.

• went to "start animations" really quickly
• paused a lot before clicking buttons, reading to herself
• found the dropdown and opened it easily, but was reluctant to choose any specific animations
• she then said she "doesn't understand" and ended the session