ENGLISH

Usability Test Plan for CSIF

Usability Test Script

Hi, [name of participant], my name is Nicole, and I am going to be walking you through this session today.

Before we begin, I have some information for you, and I am going to read it aloud to make sure that I cover everything.

We are asking you to test the instructions for our Computer Science Instructional Facility - Instruction Manual. The session will be about 30 minutes and will require that we start outdoors.

I want to make it clear that we are testing the instructions, not you. You can’t do anything wrong here, and if something isn’t working, it’s because the instructions aren’t doing their job.

As you use the instructions, I’m going to ask you to think aloud as much as possible: say what you’re looking at, what you are trying to do, and what you think the instructions mean. This will help us a lot. You may not need every part of the instructions.

Also, please don’t worry about hurting our feelings. If something isn’t working for you, we need to know. Our goal is to learn how to improve these instructions, so your honest reactions and thoughts will be most helpful.

If you have questions as we go along or if you’re getting frustrated, please let me know. I might not be able to answer your questions since we’re testing how the instructions work and not if I’m a good teacher. If you have questions when we’re done, I will be happy to talk about them with you.

We have 2 observers today, Jackson and Harrison, who will be taking notes on the session. Remember: they are not judging you. They are taking notes on what the instructions are doing well and what we will need to make the instructions more effective.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

Task Prompts:

Prompt 1: You are a new computer science student at UC Davis and need to start working on your homework in the CSIF Lab. Let’s go find it.

Prompt 2: You need to create a folder to store your first program. Open the command- line terminal and create a folder/directory.

Prompt 3: Time to make your first program! Navigate to your new directory and create a file named “firstprog.cpp” inside of it.

Prompt 4: You realize that your homework is due tomorrow but the CSIF labs are closed! Try logging in remotely using PuTTY.

Prompt 5: Your program is finished now, but you need to compile to see if it works. Try compiling it in one command. Try running your program. It should say “Hello World!” (Hint: the program’s name is “helloworld.cpp”)

Prompt 6: Try compiling your program into object files, and then link it using two separate commands. Try running your program. It should say “Hello World!”

Session Plan: Nicole will facilitate the session and keep the participant talking. Jackson and Harrison will observe and take notes during the session. We will not audio or video record the session since we will be walking around campus and in a lab where other students might be working.