PHASE 3: USABILITY TRACKING IN NOTES
In addition to conducting
testing, the usability team designed and developed a Lotus Notes database. The
primary purpose of the database was to serve as a mechanism for tracking
usability issues identified in testing. Each issue was put into a separate
Notes "document" which included a description of the problem,
which platforms it applied to, and any cross-platform consistency issues.
Issues in cc:Mail on one platform frequently related to other platforms as
well, as well as to issues in competitive products. To manage this
information, Notes "views" were created for each product. Then,
the issues could be viewed by priority, functional category, or status.
Priority levels ranged from one to five and were assigned by the
usability team based on frequency of the task and severity of the
consequences. The number of people who experienced a problem in a test was
also a contributing factor. For example, a problem experienced by eight of
eight users in a test was assigned the highest priority. Categories
included areas of e-mail determined by development, such as addressing,
folders, mailing lists, and search. Issues could either be
"open", or assigned a status such as In Progress, Done, or
Deferred, based on agreement between the usability team and development.
This method was used for cc:Mail
on all platforms.
With the creation of the database, developers and product managers no
longer had to make assumptions about addressing issues in the current
product, for example, as they could simply "query" the database
to see all addressing usability problems by priority or status. The
database provided an easy way to produce status reports for upper
management, to assess the impact of a change in one area of the UI, and to
compare against the usability of similar features in competitive
products.
Encouraging Team Participation in Testing
The Lotus Notes database
was also used to post reports and maintain the schedule of upcoming tests
to encourage project team members (in all roles) to be involved. Team
members could contribute by observing tests and giving the usability team
their impressions. All teams within Lotus could access the database, but
the views containing confidential customer information on test participants
were restricted to the usability team only. This was helpful in that it
made usability efforts visible to a broad range of people working on the
product. In addition, it was part of the Lotus corporate culture to use
Notes databases for project management, so it gave the usability group a
tangible presence across the company.
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Phase 1
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Phase 2
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Phase 4
Results and Examples
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Conclusions