As part of the "Usability Studies" course offered by the Human Centered Design and Engineering department at the University of Washington, I conducted a usability test to study Skype for consumer use on Windows PC. This study took place in the usability labs of Microsoft office in Redmond.
What is Skype?
Skype is a communication application that provides a variety of features to its users like: video chat, voice call to phone or Skype, file and contact sharing. It is available for download and use on multiple devices and platforms ranging from Windows computers to android / iPhones and tablets to Mac books. Most of the services offered by Skype are free of cost, except a few.
For confidentiality reasons, I can't show client work here. However, I can explain a little about the flow of the usability study.
Skype is a communication application that provides a variety of features to its users like: video chat, voice call to phone or Skype, file and contact sharing. It is available for download and use on multiple devices and platforms ranging from Windows computers to android / iPhones and tablets to Mac books. Most of the services offered by Skype are free of cost, except a few.
For confidentiality reasons, I can't show client work here. However, I can explain a little about the flow of the usability study.
Usability Evaluation Process
My Contribution
- Usability study design - Created an intensive list of research and task questions, bound within the standard "Experimental Outcomes" (XO) framework of Microsoft.
- Usability study facilitation - Performed test moderation for multiple participants and gathered relevant notes.
- Evidence based research -
- Used Ovo Logger to record sessions.
- Represented the "Windows PC" team of Skype to present research findings to the product team.