Engl317 project4 slidedoc4_screencasting_usability_testfinding
- 1. How to Create a Screencast of a Usability Test Finding 1 Deliverable 2:
- 2. Screencast: subject, audience, and purpose. • The subject of your screencast will be to demonstrate a finding from your usability test. • The audience may be potential users of the products or website(s) or if demonstrating a problem, the designers of the product or website. • The purpose is to demonstrate a feature you like or a usability problem. If you compared two products or websites, you may compare them or work with just one product or website. • Since you have already created a screencast for project 2, you will not need to do a test recording unless you choose another tool. 2
- 3. You will need to write a script and practice it. 3 The goal is not to try to sound like a professional broadcaster, but to practice and develop clarity in your presentation speaking style.
- 4. To compose the script. • Decide if you want to demonstrate a finding that you scored as highly usable and/or a finding that you didn't find usable. • If you compared two products or websites, consider if you want to focus on one or if you want to show a comparison of a task. 4
- 5. Tips for success: • Avoid just showing a viewer how to do a task or use a feature. You will need to do the task or use the feature, but the focus should be on walking the viewer through aspects you find usable or a problem. • The demonstration should be a screencapture of the product or website, so taking screenshots and putting these into a slidecast won’t work for this deliverable. • It’s often easier to pull up your script and work with the screencapture tool on a desktop than on a laptop because you have a bigger screen to work with. 5
- 6. Writing a clear and focused script will help you avoid this problem: 6 Rambling. Ramblers often are not able to clearly demonstrate a feature or a problem because they haven’t practiced the “walk through” enough. Practice doing the walk through with a script to avoid this problem.
- 7. Continue to apply the principles of effective prose style when writing the script but adapt these for the ear by keeping sentences short. 7 You should be able to say each sentence in your script in a single breath.
- 8. Your script will need: 8 Introduction About 10 seconds. Key Points Up to 3 minutes Conclusion About 10 seconds. Timing Your screencast is internal communication, so the audience would be expecting it. Keep it simple. The key points of the screencast should clearly walk the viewer through the steps of a feature you like or a problem you noticed. Again, keep the conclusion simple.
- 9. 9 You will want enough of the tool bar in a product or navigation for a website showing in the screencapture screen to demonstrate a usability finding(s).
- 10. Delivery: continue to apply these concepts when recording your voice-over narration. 10 • Vocal variety: pitch, tone, volume, and rate. • Pausing. • Diction Exercises to help you improve your speaking style can be found under Tools & Resources.