Usability testing in an online synchronous environment
We had our first round of usability testing to help the team identify support for the usage of Adobe Connect with our target audience. One team member facilitated the tasks the participants had to run through in the synchronous online environment, while the rest of us sat and observed the participants as they tried to navigate the system. I was assigned as an observer. From the observer viewpoint, it was hard for me not to jump in and help when my participant got stuck on a task. But it was very interesting to see how the participants worked together as a group in their “natural environment” to solve problems. Our instructor seems to think our process of testing Adobe Connect would be good for an article. A cursory look at the literature doesn’t reveal much in terms of usability testing in synchronous online environments, so this may be a useful topic for the team to explore.
