Reference no: EM131407099

When we are familiar with a technology we are documenting, we can lose touch with how foreign the technology can be to those who lack our experience with it. Testing our documentation gives us insight into our users' experiences and can inform us about the instructions we need to provide.

For this task you will need a novice user-someone with little experience creating spreadsheets and using Google Docs. Assume the novice user is organizing a walkathon. Several local organizations' members are participating. The novice user wants to create a spreadsheet that lists how much each walker raised, as well as the organization each walker is affiliated with.

The attached "How to Create a Spreadsheet in Google Docs" gives instructions for creating this spreadsheet. You are to create a usability test for your novice user to complete, and then revise the instructions in accordance with what you learned from the experience.

Before running the usability test, make sure you understand the instructions. During the test, encourage the novice user to voice thoughts. Pay attention to the novice user's actions and thought process. Take detailed notes that you can reflect on when the usability test has ended. After the test, talk with the novice user about what worked well and what did not.

Conducting the test once can provide valuable insight. Conducting the test with a second novice user may confirm the results of the first test, may provide additional insight, and may even result in contradictions; while this is not a requirement, you may choose to run a second test. If you do, you will need to make sense of the results, whether they confirm the results of the first test or contradict them.

Task:

A. Create a usability test plan for testing the attached "How to Create a Spreadsheet in Google Docs."

B. Discuss the findings of your usability test after administering it to a novice user.

C. Revise the attached "How to Create a Spreadsheet in Google Docs" based on your findings from your usability test.

1. Justify how your revisions improve the instructions based on your findings from the usability test.

2. Use appropriate principles of clarity in your revisions.

3. Use appropriate principles of grammar in your revisions.

D. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.