Usability Lab Tour
The Usability Services Laboratory is housed in two main rooms. The evaluation room is furnished with a desk and workstation for the usability participant. There is also a large observation room where design team members can watch the evaluation sessions on console monitors or on a large-screen plasma display.
- Evaluator Room
- Eye-Tracking Equipment in the Evaluation Room
- Observation Room Console
- Observation Room Plasma Display
- Plasma Display Detail
- Eye-Tracking Gaze Plot
- Eye-Tracking Hot Spot Map
Evaluator Room
Usability Services manager Alice de la Cova demonstrates where usability participants sit when they try out a Web site in a usability evaluation session.
Eye-Tracking Equipment in the Evaluation Room
Eye-tracking equipment allows a design team to see immediately where a usability participant is looking on a Web page.
Observation Room Console
This is a view of the observation room console, from which observers can see into the evaluation room. During a usability evaluation session, observers can see and hear the participant, as well as watching the participant's screen on the observation room display monitors.
Observation Room Plasma Display
In the observation room, there is also a large wall-mounted plasma display where observers can watch the evaluation sessions. During a usability evaluation session, observers take notes on usability issues that the participant encounters.
Plasma Display Detail
This is a close-up of a usability session shown on the plasma display. In this picture, the large image on the left is showing the participant's screen, while the smaller images on the right show the participant's face, keyboard and mouse, and a spreadsheet of the usability issues. Alternatively, the plasma display could show other inputs, such as the real-time eye-tracking results. Real-time eye-tracking presents the participant's screen with a small blue dot indicating the location where the participant is focusing on the screen.
Eye-Tracking Gaze Plot
This is a gaze plot from a demo of the lab's eye-tracker using a sample task. The gaze plot shows where a participant looked on the Web page during that individual's session, and in what sequence different parts of the page were viewed by the participant.
Eye-Tracking Hot Spot Map
This is a hot spot map from a demo of the lab's eye-tracker using a sample task. The hot spot map shows where a group of participants looked on the Web page during all of their individual sessions. Areas with the most eye fixations are shown in red.
For more information, contact:
Alice de la Cova
Usability Services Manager
Phone: (612) 624-9365
E-mail: a-dela@umn.edu