OLPC Rochester, NY/Usability testing class project

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16 March 2008 Meeting

NOTE: The contents of this page are not set in stone, and are subject to change! This page is a draft in active flux ... Please leave suggestions on the talk page.

Draft notes: Image:Meeting1Summary.doc Meeting #1 Description OLPC
Attending: Deidra Robinson, Man Truong, Jacob Barber, Frederick Grose

Goals and Expectations:

Since the OLPC laptops are relatively new, we realize that there is a broad spectrum of areas we could focus on. For purposes of our usability tests we will focus on a piece of software or software related issues. The client realizes that there have been some complaints about the laptop, but leaves it up to us to find the problem area/s. The client would like us to discover the area where we can contribute the most to developers in the time allowed for our testing. In this meeting we did not settle on one particular application or idea; however, we did narrow down possible topics to existing software on the laptops.

I think we are leaning toward testing one of the 'collaboration' facilities after reviewing what's available and how to procede theoretically and practically. --FGrose 21:37, 16 March 2008 (EDT)

It is expected that we will share and track our testing and findings on the OLPC wiki website. Also the client would like to take a very active role throughout this process. There are some plans already in store for the laptops that the client understands we are not aware of and we have come to terms on the limitations of our studies.

Types of users that you will want to represent with participants:

The OLPC laptops are sent to underdeveloped countries for children, teachers, and parents to use as a learning tool. The main audience is children between the ages of 6 and 12, with an even more targeted focus on 6 – 10 year olds. This targeted focus is because the laptops are usually given to the younger population and the students keep them for 4-5 years, so by the time they reach the older ages they will be already fairly familiar with the laptops. Since for many of these children these laptops are this may be the first computer they have ever seen nonetheless use we will aim at finding users with very little computer use. Ideally we would find children who have never saw a computer.

Type of test you are thinking about:

We are looking into types of software testing in addition to doing traditional observation and surveying.

Approximate number of participants needed:

Resources limit the maximum number of participants; to get reliable data we will need, at a minimum, 10 participants.

Our final numbers will also be influenced by what we intend to test and how many units we will have available for testing. For example, testing the collaboration between two users and the XO's "paint" program if we only have access to two units.

Access to the system to be tested:

Frederick Grose (the client) informed us that there are about 6 laptops on campus and is working to get us access to some/all of those machines. Stephen Jacobs, an R.I.T. professor (http://www.it.rit.edu/~sxj/), owns one to three "XO" units and Fred obtained permission to loan one of them to Man Truong on 17 March 2008. The XO was handed off to Man on the evening of 18 March 2008 17:30 (EDT). Since Man had a class from 18:00 to 21:50 and works from 08:00 to 17:00 there was limited time available to examine the unit before the next team meeting. This particular XO will be more thoroughly reviewed by all team members during class on 19 March 2008.

The team also anticipates access to multiple XO units during the OLPC Workshop at R.I.T. on 26 March 2008. Our first experience with the XO's collaborative interface to other physically present XO units may be that evening.

In the meantime, two team members will attempt to installed the SUGAR interface/OS on their own machines with access to software packages and installation instructions from the OLPC wiki. All software is open source so we should have unlimited access. We hope to join these emulations in collaboration with any actual XO units in our possession.

Anticipated special challenges for study:

At this point our biggest foreseen challenge will be finding children with little to no computer experience. Any participants' prior experience with Windows or Mac (or other) operating systems and physical laptop devices will influence their experiences with the XO unit during testing. These effects conflict with the intended user group of children with virtually no exposure to computers and operating systems. This variance will be addressed during the actual study.

NOTE: Heuristic evaluation is not possible this week due to no access to the XO unit.