Beyond the Usability Lab

Chapter 6. Data Analysis and Presentation

If you're familiar with traditional lab usability testing, you know that the majority of what you learn from a test comes from direct observation of the participants in the study. In an online study, you don't have that direct observation. You might have 1000 different people doing your study simultaneously. Even if you had the technical ability to somehow watch “over the shoulder” of those participants, it's not humanly possible. That's where your analysis of data from the online study comes in. That data, and your analysis of it, have to take the place of direct observation. It has to provide a retrospective view “over the shoulder” of your participants.

This chapter is all about making sense of data ...