English 421: Technical Writing

Well here is some of the same old article stuf that has to deal with Microsoft and what they do to research usability of their products.

Microsoft Usability Research

In this article, Microsoft goes on to tell about what they are doing to research the usability of their software and other products.  This is more or less telling you what they will be doing if you were to be asked to participate in their research.  They go into a summary of what to expect will happen and what they are expecting.  What I found interesting, and I should not have, was the fact that they have usability testing in labs and controlled environments and out in public in the home or business setting.  I guess I just had usabilty testing mostly found in an open setting at home or at the company. 

Controlled usabilty reseach though does have its advantages.  In this set up the research team can acquire data or situations and then have several different users go through that very situation and see what they would do or where they get stuck.

--Aaron