A master thesis from Aalborg University
Development of tool for remote asynchronous usability and user experience testing of desktop applications
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2023
Submitted on
2023-06-02
Pages
77 pages
Abstract
As technology continues to evolve, the demand for intuitive and user-friendly software experiences is also on the rise. The aim of this project was to enhance the usability of desktop applications by exploring and developing methods for asynchronous remote user testing. To accomplish this, a case study of a desktop slicing software, REALvision Pro, was selected. Two studies were conducted: study 1 used asynchronous remote usability testing (ARUT), while study 2 employed traditional in-person testing as a benchmark. Study 2 yielded significantly richer data and identified more usability issues, including high severity ones, compared to study 1. The usability issues identified in study 2 were of higher quality due to the availability of different data sources. However, study 1 encountered limitations, such as the ineffective implementation of critical-incident reports and log data collection, resulting in no findings from these methods. The discussion highlighted methodological differences between the two studies, resulting in the identification of different types of usability issues. In conclusion, while the developed tool for asynchronous remote testing offers advantages such as resource reduction, scalability, and flexibility, in-person testing provides richer data and identifies more usability issues, which ultimately outweighs these benefits.
Documents
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