Office of Digital Humanities

DigHT 310
Final Project: User Evaluation

Here are the requirements for the user evaluation of your final project:

1. You will develop an instrument for evaluating your software. You have the choice of conducting either a user observation or a user questionnaire, so you should create either:
   • a set of observation guidelines, OR;
   • a short survey/questionnaire.


2. Conduct the evaluation using either the direct observation and questionnaire/survey instrument you created, as appropriate.


3. You should conduct the evaluation with a minimum of four persons. Ideally, your subjects should have average computer or mobile device experience and should reflect the target audience of your program. For example, if your program is intended as an introduction to a foreign language or culture, your testers should have little or no knowledge of that language or culture.

4. After you conduct your evaluation, you should compile the results as follows:

   1. For observations:
      • Combine comments from all testers, grouping similar problems and responses together.
      • List trends that you noticed during observation (e.g., what worked well/poorly; where did users especially have problems.)
   
   
   2. For questionnaire/survey:
      • Compile written responses to questions together after the question on a master survey form.
      • For numeric responses, if any, compile totals and averages.
   
   
5. Make a list of recommendations for concrete changes that you will make to your software, based on the results of your user evaluation. After considering these recommendations and discussing them with the instructor, you should incorporate the changes you decide are needed into the final version of your project.

Turn in the following items to the instructor on the due date:

1. copies of the blank survey or observation form (or a link if you do an online survey);
2. compiled results of your survey or observations;
3. recommendations for changes to your software.

Be sure to keep copies for yourself to use as you make your bug fixes and changes.