Usability Testing Facility
Westat has a new usability testing facility designed by Usability Systems, Inc.
This testing suite is used for conducting in-depth one-on-one interviews; cognitive testing of survey instruments;
and usability studies of web sites, software applications, and other projects where the user interface is a critical issue.
Westat's usability testing facility was designed to support:
- Unobtrusive observation of user behavior via one-way
glass and multicamera video monitoring;
- Robotic control of pan, tilt, zoom, focus, and preset positions
for each of the digital video cameras;
- Digital video recording from both the high-resolution
digital cameras and the high-resolution computer-to-video scan converter;
- Video switching and integration using a 4 X 4 video recorder
switcher and picture-in-picture (PIP) display;
- Event recording using a sophisticated suite of behavioral
coding software by Noldus, Inc.;
- Remote usability testing through synchronized network applications
and video conferencing capabilities; and
- Full analytic capabilities by exporting data from the laboratory
for use with statistical analysis software.
