Ten Keys to Success - Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics - page 287

Don't try to measure everything at once. There are only so many aspects of
the user experience that you can quantify at any one time. If a product or busi-
ness sponsor wants you to capture 100 different metrics, make them justify why
each and every metric is essential. It's important to choose a few key metrics for
any one study. The additional time to run the study and perform the analyses
may make you think twice about including too many metrics at once.

Don't over-rely on a single metric. If you try to get a single metric to repre-
sent the entire experience, you're likely to miss something big. For example, if
you only collect data on satisfaction, you'll miss everything about the actual
interaction. Sometimes satisfaction data might take aspects of the interaction
into account, but it often misses a lot as well. We recommend that you try to
capture a few different metrics, each tapping into a different aspect of the user
experience.

11.10 SIMPLIFY YOUR PRESENTATION
All your hard work comes down to the point where you have to present results.
How you choose to communicate your results can make or break a study. There
are a few key things you should pay special attention to. First and foremost, your
goals need to match those of your audience.

Often you need to present findings to several different types of audiences.
For example, you may need to present findings to the project team, consisting of
an information architect, design lead, project manager, editor, developer, busi-
ness sponsor, and product manager. The project team is most concerned with
detailed usability issues and specific design recommendations. Bottom line,
they want to know the weaknesses with the design and how to fix them.

TIPS FOR AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION OF USABILITY
RESULTS

• Set the stage appropriately. Depending on your audience, you might need to explain

or demo the product, describe the research methods, or provide other background
information. It all comes down to knowing your audience.

• Don't belabor procedural details, but make them available. At a minimum, your

audience will usually want to know something about the participants in the study
and the tasks they were asked to perform.

• Lead with positive findings. Some positive results come out of almost every study.

Most people like to hear about features of the design that worked well.

• Use screenshots. Pictures really do work better than words in most cases. A screenshot

that you've annotated with notes about usability issues can be very compelling.

• Use short video clips. The days of an elaborate production process to create a

highlights videotape are, thankfully, mostly gone. With computer-based video, it's