1. Thawatchai Piyawat Jantawan Noiwan Anthony F. Norcio
Usability Testing of BlogExpress: Blog Reader Software as a Knowledge Management Tool
Thawatchai Piyawat
Jantawan Noiwan
Anthony F. Norcio
HCI International 2005
22-27 July 2005 Las Vegas, Nevada USA

2. Agenda Related Work BlogExpress Usability Testing Plan Findings
Recommendations

3. Related Work Weblog or blog RSS feed
A written collection of personal opinions formatted like a reversed diary or journal.
RSS feed
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.
An XML file contains a short version of new contents of a Web site.
Use an RSS reader (or a blog reader) to retrieve the updated feeds and read the new contents.

4. Related Work (Cont’) KM Processes Blogs as KM Tools
1. Creating knowledge
Writing blogs to express knowledge
2. Capturing knowledge
Reading blog contents and mining knowledge from blog archives
3. Refining knowledge
Categorizing blogs and mapping blog relevancy
4. Storing knowledge
Archiving blogs as knowledge repository
5. Managing knowledge
Arranging blog contents into categories and a chronological order
6. Disseminating knowledge
Posting personal or professional blogs in offline and online media and referring to blog contents of others

5. BlogExpress Free Blog reader software
Download at

6. BlogExpress (Cont’) Interface initiatives Two panes Web tab
Single subscription dialog
Readability comes first

7. Usability Testing Plan
User Profile
Five senior students (one male and four females)
Ages are in the range of 21 to 22
Speak Thai as their native language
Have a moderate ability in reading English.
Internet and computer expert users
Have basic understandings of HCI and blogs

8. Usability Testing Plan (Cont’)
Procedures
Fill out a pre-test questionnaire
Be given a brief description of the test
Test the software individually
Fill out the post-task questionnaire, after completing each task
Fill out the post-test questionnaire
Get interviewed

9. Usability Testing Plan (Cont’)
Scenario Testing Design
Scenario 1: First impression (allocated time: 3 minutes)
Scenario 2: New subscription (allocated time: 5 minutes)
Scenario 3: Blog reading (allocated time: 3 minutes)
Scenario 4: New subscription by drag-and-drop approach (allocated time: 5 minutes)
Scenario 5: Feed synchronizing and catching up (allocated time: 3 minutes)

10. Findings Timing results Usability problems Post-test Feedback Summary
Comment Summary

11. Findings - Timing results
On average, participants spend minutes in completing all five scenarios.
In the scenario 4, two participants needed more extra time to finish the tasks.

12. Findings - Usability problems
Five problems are imperative to fix
unable to drag the RSS link and drop onto the subscription icon.
didn't read the whole description of an icon.
Eight problems are important to fix
unsure if the two icons for new Web tab have similar functions.
unsure the functionality of the donation icon.
Six problems are minor
expected to have the left pane in every Web tab.
expected to be able to sort feed items by titles.

13. Findings - Post-test Feedback Summary
Totally agree
Agree
Neutral
Easy to use 1 3
Eye pleasing 4
Easy to learn 2
Easy to remember its functions.
Text is easy to read.
Layout of text is clear.
Graphics are clear. 5

14. Findings - Comment Summary
Visibility of System Status
“the "New" indicator is great one. I know immediately that I have new feeds to read.”
Match between System and the Real World
“Imitating Internet Explorer look-and-feel helps me get used to with this software faster” and “Icons are nicely designed but some are meaningless…”
User Control and Freedom
“hotkeys and right-click menus are really helpful.”
“I really have no idea where I should drop this link over…
Consistency and Standards
“The current theme is readable, but it will be more fun if I can choose themes.”
Aesthetic and Minimalist Design
“I think it is light on features. However, I love its simplicity. I think it's very easy to use”

15. Recommendations
Redesign some graphics and provide mouse-over short descriptions,
Provide some personalization features e.g. enable skinnable interface,
provide various ways in sorting blog items and blog titles,
Include search capabilities,
Allow external browser selection,
Enable performing other tasks while synchronizing subscribed blogs,
Notify users when BlogExpress is minimized to the system tray,
Provide a built-in help or a user manual,
Enable the tree-view pane on the left side on every Web tab,
Archive feed items, and integrate blog writing capabilities