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“ Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated. ”

-- Paul Rand, 1997

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David Dryer

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Publications by David Dryer (bibliography)

1995

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Stanney, Kay M., Reeves, Leah and Dryer, David (1995): An Innovative Approach to Usability Testing: Facilitated Free-Play. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. p. 967.

“In reviewing the global objectives of user-based assessments (i.e., naturalness and meeting test objectives), it was determined that most available usability analysis techniques achieve one of these objectives while compromising the other. A new technique, facilitated free-play (FFP), was thus developed that incorporates attributes of existing techniques in order to achieve both objectives. This technique was developed as a result of usability analyses performed on an interactive television (ITV) network. In the evaluation of the ITV, traditional usability techniques were considered. Due to the socially interactive and non-task oriented nature of ITV viewing, however, none of these techniques allowed for test objectives to be met without imposing undue control over viewers. The FFP approach was designed to resolve this compromise. FFP involves first identifying theoretical design issues through a heuristic evaluation and designing the FFP protocol around these issues. Then, during test sessions, a facilitator poses as a fellow naive viewer and discreetly guides test users into the identified problem areas, while an evaluator determines which of the theoretical design issues become practical usability issues for users. This information is then used to prioritize redesign recommendations. The advantages of the FFP approach were its ability to provide control over the tasks performed by test users, while also providing a natural, non-threatening environment. In addition, the FFP approach uncovered additional design issues not identified in the heuristic evaluation; those directly related to the viewer-system interchange. The primary disadvantage of the FFP approach was that it did not allow equal coverage of the theoretical design issues identified due to the free-formed nature of the interaction. While, this was a shortcoming (particularly in terms of complicating statistical analyses), it did not prevent the test objectives from being met.”

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