[Nautilus-list] Results of MIT usability testing

["Christopher D. Beland" <beland MIT EDU>]

MIT Information Systems has finished documenting its formal usability
testing on a graphical user interface based on Gnome 1.2, Nautilus
PR2, and Linux-Athena 8.4 (http://web.mit.edu/is/athena/).  The
results are available for public perusal; see the below URLs to find
the information you're most interested in.

Developers and designers alike will probably be interested in our
findings.  Though all seven users preferred Gnome to the older
Unix-based interface, some did experience problems completing certain
common tasks.  We've offered concrete suggestions on how the new user
experience might be improved.  The AUI project has since moved into
delivery phase, and we are in the process of integrating Gnome with
the Athena environment for our major summer 2001 release.


Test results summary:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/results1.html

User-by-user issue tabulation:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/analysis1.html

Personal notes from one observer:
http://web.mit.edu/aui/notebook/beland-usability-notes.txt

The test questions as the users saw them:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/test1.html

Results of our menu item card-sorting exercise:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/results/menus.html

and for more general information:

Athena User Interface Usability Testing homepage:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/aui/

Athena User Interface Project home page:
http://web.mit.edu/aui/notebook/


Thanks, and we look forward to continued fruitful collaboration.


Chris Beland
on behalf of the AUI and Usability Teams