Instructor Notes
When delivering this tutorial, it is expected that the instructor will cover all of the content in the main body (not callouts) and the exercises. Some notes have been provided with the exercises to explain solutions or give suggestions to instructors as to how they can discuss participants’ responses. Overall, we recommend encouraging people to discuss their expectations and responses; often there are no right or wrong answers and recognizing that context is needed to make choices (e.g. about how many participants to include) is helpful for participants.
Note that this tutorial content assumes you will present the material over Zoom.
What is Rapid Usability Testing?
Instructor Note
Below is the script for the skit, two people are needed. The participant should begin sharing their screen with students from the start and can pretend to begin/end that at the appropriate points in the script. Discuss reactions with students—what suprised them, confused them, was interetesting? What aspects of usability do they think could be addressed by this study? Note that the survey question the facilitator sends the participant suggests that the research is focused on user satisfaction.
Facilitator: Thanks for joining me today. I’m Hannah and I’ll be guiding you through the study session. We’re here to try and find ways we can improve the US-RSE website. Just to assure you, this is not a test of your abilities—we’re here to evaluate the website, not you. During this session, I will assign you a task to complete on the US-RSE website and then I’ll have a survey question for you.
Participant: Okay
Facilitator: I sent you the informed consent information over email. Did you have any questions about that?
Participant: I saw that. No questions.
Facilitator: Great. Do I have permission to record this session then? You might want to minimize any open applications.
Participant: Sure. Nothing’s open right now.
Facilitator: Okay. The recording has started. To set up for the task I’ll assign you, can you start sharing your screen so I can observe what you do on the website?
Participant: Yeah. Let me do that. Done.
Facilitator: I’m going to send you a link to the US-RSE website. I’ll chat it to you in one second. Your task is to submit a poster to the US-RSE 2025 conference, so follow the link and begin your poster submission. I’ll stop you before you have to actually upload any files. While you’re working, please narrate your thoughts and actions so that I can hear what you’re thinking. Any questions?
Participant: Nope
Facilitator: Okay, here’s the link: https://us-rse.org/ And as you’re trying to submit your poster, don’t forget to think aloud.
Participant: Okay. So I guess this is the US-RSE website and I’m submitting to the conference…Get Involved seems like maybe where they’d put conference info. [click dropdown] But no…oh and okay, there’s a conference link here. [Click it and fall silent for 5ish seconds while moving around then hovering over “Submission window closed”]
Facilitator: What are you thinking right now?
Participant: Oh I was just wondering if maybe I can’t submit? It says the window is closed. But I guess it says “except posters” [click on “Submit your work”]
Participant: Okay, “Call for submissions…..” Oh and there’s just one link on this page here and that’s to submit your poster so I’ll click. Oh, I don’t have an account.
Facilitator: I’ll stop you there. That’s as far as you need to go in the task for now. You can stop sharing your screen now. [BUT DON’T STOP SHARING] Here’s a link to a survey question I have for you about that task. The survey will ask you for a participant ID—yours is P4. Just let me know when you’re done with that. https://docs.google.com/forms/this_is_a_fake_link_4demos
Participant: Okay. [Fill out survey] All set.
Facilitator: Great. That’s all I have for today. Do you have any questions for me?
Participant: Nope.
Facilitator: Alright, well thank you for participating. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Preparing a rapid usability test
Recruiting and tracking participants
Conducting a rapid usability test
Instructor Note
Ask the group to talk about their experiences. What went well? What were they uncertain about? Did they actually follow the script? Could they take notes while listening? What questions do they have?