Week 7B

Wednesday

In class, we discussed other types of user testing we could use that would benefit our research. Eye tracking records the movement of a users eyes as the eyes navigate through the screen and tracks how long they gaze in a certain area. Heat maps are used by creating different levels of heat gradation based on the duration of movement and where the user paused the most. Gaze plots is a fixation test that numbers and links together the order and sequence of the eye's movement. 

As this technology was not available for us to use, we focused the next few exercises on 5 second testing. Within 5 seconds the user will pick out the most informational data, based on what caught their eye first. This type of testing can be completed with user clicking. The user will click the targeted destination on the website based on a prompt. Websites like Plunk can record the targeted destination and where the user clicked. Plunk can record several users at once and tally up the results for research. Another website we used was clueapp.com which creates a memory test. 

Other testing that could become a powerful tool is AB testing. By comparing two different versions of a design the user can split test the webpage and see which one is looking the best. Through this technique you can validate the new design changes by testing the hypothesis and improve your websites ratings. 

We continued to work in class on our user testing projects. 

Admissions User Testing project status: Still need 3 more users to question.

Up Next Fest: Bar Camp Presentation

Instead of presenting for a High School class, I volunteered to present at Up Next Fest in Harrisburg. Bar Camp allows professionals, students, teachers, etc. to participate in discussions, presentations and workshops. For my presentation, I decided to talk about the process of designing a website. I chose to go through the process of my Slamin Salmon website that I finished in the spring '15 in Adv. Web Design.