There is evidence that our visual processing develops over time though it seems instantaneous to us. This general (or: global) to detailed (or: local) processing is also supported by neuroscience and is of enormous importance as it explains how we identify objects in our daily environment
Our visual environment changes all the time. It is important that we notice these changes. For example, it allows us to react to potential dangers like moving away from something dangerous and in general, to make sense of the world around us. However, our perceptual system does not always respond to changes in our environment in an appropriate way. The phenomenon of this so-called change blindness is crucial for user experience design as it can affect overseeing critical information on a visual display.
How do we process information? In cognitive psychology there are two famous processes involved on how we interpret information – and as humans, we constantly use both: Top- down processing and bottom-up processing. (more…)
Have you ever wondered if simply avoiding the term “test” in usability test situations may get you better results? We have and we think replacing the word “test” with the word “evaluation” is an improved description of the situation and will even help us to get less biased and therefore better and more accurate results!
As language determines perception, we think it is better to use the term „evaluation“ when it comes to usability testing situations instead the term „test“ – especially when interacting with our participants, because – simply put – a usability test is nothing else than an evaluation of a product/system with somebody’s help – namely our participants – who are or might be the users of the product/system.
So unlike a heuristic evaluation or cognitive walkthroughs which you will do by analyzing the product by yourself – a usability test is an empirical evaluation of a product/system with the help of people, who use or might use a specific system or product. “Empirical” here meaning: the knowledge or source of the knowledge is acquired by your senses, mostly by observation. In a usability test you will observe (and interview) representative users trying to accomplish certain important tasks as they are using the product.
We prefer the term „usability evaluation (with users)“ over “usability test” or even “user test”, simply because the term “test” is avoided and this little fact may help to reduce stress levels and therefore errors because people will feel less „observed“ and „tested“ during the test situation. “Evaluation” is also a more precise word in this situation because you are not actually testing peoples’ skills while they interact with the product, you are testing/evaluating a product with their help. That is a huge difference, also in the test participants’ perception. Using the term “test” can result in so called experimenter effects – like demand characteristics – which describe the tendency of participants to give you (as the experimenter) what you want based on what the participants think/guess what you might expect from them – here: a test “result”. This may lead to the participants focusing on how to solve tasks error-free and to please. Such effects may put the complete validity of your usability test at risk.
In addition, we believe the term „evaluation“ will help people feel much more included because it prevents a „we“ vs „them“ situation, which can help to reduce further stress during the evaluation. We should always keep in mind that our participants help us and cooperate with us in evaluating a product/system and just using slightly different terms may help doing this better.
Image credit: https://flic.kr/p/LJwVMm (CC BY 2.0)
Social psychology theories like the stereotype content model may have a huge impact in your user experience work, as more and more interactions between companies and customers take place through a „digital window“ called a user interface. The perception and therefore the behaviour of digital interfaces had become more and more important to brand perception. This can serve as a basis for improving your customer loyalty as a growing body of research suggests that people have emotional relationships with brands that resemble relations between people.
(more…)