Re: an indexing question

["Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

I piggyback the index test onto another test. See, if I give them a list,
they look up the words on the list. And that makes it far too easy for me to
cheat. I suppose I could exclude the words that are actually in the index,
but that would be cheating too, just cheating against myself.

So I don't create a separate test for the index, I tag along on tests of the
product that my company sells(industrial software) or tests of the manual or
help file. We generally set up scenarios for tasks that a user might be
expected to perform. For example, we might ask the test subject to build a
screen that reads certain values from a piece of equipment and displays the
results as bar graphs and numerals. We might show what the screen should
look like when it is done, but we don't tell them how to do it. When the
subject has a question, we suggest that the answer might be in the
documentation. If the subject looks at an index, we ask what word the
subject is looking for.

It's very simple, but you would not believe how much we learn.

---
Office:
mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
Home:
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Swenson [SMTP:Dave_Swenson -at- TRENDMICRO -dot- COM]
>
> You mention running the Index through a usability test -- roughly how do
> you
> structure something like this? Like a treasure hunt, i.e., give some
> people
> a list of things to find in the document? Who creates the list? It sound
> very interesting and I would like to try it myself.
>
        ...

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Huber, Mike [SMTP:mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM]
>
> > Well, I tend index both the way you describe, and as
        ...
> >
> > I've found that running an index through a usability lab is extremely
> > valuable. Watching somebody use your index can be a strange experience.
> >
> >