Usability Test Screening Questionnaire
A
usability test screening questionnaire is a
testing work product consisting of an organized list of
questions that is used to select and understand test
participants for usability testing.
The typical objectives of a usability test screening
questionnaire are to:
- Contain questions selected to ascertain whether a person
has the general and specific characteristics needed to become
a good test participant.
- Obtain demographic information from people that will
enable usability testers to identify, qualify, and select
potential test participants.
- Obtain historical information (including experience,
attitudes, and preferences) from people that will enable
usability testers to understand the behavior and performance
of test participants during a test.
The typical benefits of a usability test screening
questionnaire include:
- It enables the user experience team or their surrogates
(e.g., employment agencies or market research firms) to
select appropriate test participants.
The typical contents of a usability test screening
questionnaire include:
-
- Personal history including age range, gender, handedness,
etc.
- Preferences and attitudes including preferred learning
style, attitude towards high tech, attitude towards
computers, attitude towards the work product and its
competitors, attitude towards the company and its
competitors, etc.
- Education history including highest grade completed,
major subjects, etc.
- Occupational history including industry, occupation,
responsibilities, training, years of experience, typing
skills, etc.
- Computer experience including total time used, frequency
of use, types of hardware used, types of software used, types
of operating systems used, reasons used, user interfaces
used, etc.
- Work product experience including total time used,
frequency of use, types used, tasks performed (including
frequency), etc.
The typical stakeholders of a usability test screening
questionnaire include:
A usability test screening questionnaire typically can be
started if the following preconditions hold:
- The usability testing section of the
project
test plan is completed.
- The user profile section of the
user analysis is completed.
- The user experience team is staffed and trained in
usability testing.
- The relevant item under test (document, prototype, or
application) is started.
The typical inputs to a usability test screening
questionnaire include:
- Work Products:
- Stakeholders:
- Identify the required characteristics of the test
participants from the user profiles in the user
analysis.
- Use both general population characteristics as well as
those characteristics that are unique to the work product
under test.
- Design the questionnaire so that it can be easily used
during phone screening.
- Order the questions so that an inappropriate person will
be likely to be disqualified early in the questionnaire so
that time is not unnecessarily wasted.
- Base the questions on the usability test objectives.
- Questions should be simple, understandable, concise,
precise, relevant, and to the point.
- Questions should not require a long response from the
test participants. Where practical, use multiple choice
questions instead of essay questions that require the test
participant to write free-form responses.
- Ask numerical questions in terms of ranges because poeple
are often reluctant to provide exact personal details, such
as age or salary.
- Internally test and revise the questionnaire before using
it in actual practice.
- Provide/include the answers that qualify a person as a
test participant.
A usability test screening questionnaire is typically
constrained by the following conventions:
-
Content and Format Standard
-
Template
-
Inspection Checklist
-
Example Usability Test Screening
Questionnaire