Thinking Aloud Test Plan

1 Introduction

{Short description of the web site to be tested.}

{State whether you will be testing in English or German. All of your tests must be run in the same language. Adapt my text below accordingly.}

The web site is in German and will be tested in German with German-speaking test users.

The web site is available in both German and English. The English version will be tested with English-speaking test users.

2 Test Methodology

{Describe what a TA Test is and how it is done. Write between 300 and 500 of your own words. Replace my sample text below with your own.}

A thinking aloud test is ... ... can be found in Keith Andrews' course notes [And2023]. The thinking aloud method is described in detail by Barnum [Bar2020].

{Cite at least two more references of your own in this section and include them in the References section below. Use only indirect quotations (paraphrasing), no direct quotations. You may remove or retain my sample reference citations as you wish.}

3 User Profiles

{Describe the kinds of user the site is trying to attract.}

{Group these users into categories according to their characteristics.}

{Describe the goals and typical tasks for each of these user groups.}

{Which one of these user groups do you suggest testing?}

4 Test Users

{Organise five potential test users: one pilot test user and four real test users. Assign (sensible) first name aliases to your test users, different from their real first names. Plan for the time(s) when they are available.}

{If you are testing the interface in English, your test users should be proficient in English and should think out loud in English. If you are testing the interface in German, your test users should be proficient in German and should think out loud in German.}

Table 1 gives an overview of the test users planned to participate in the study.

5 Test Environment

{Plan to run the tests on a PC (= desktop or laptop, running Windows, MacOS, or Unix) with Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. All test users must use the same device and browser!

The planned environment for the tests is shown in Table 2.

{Fill out the table as best you can at the moment of writing the TA Plan. Measure the download speed of your internet connection (in Austria, use netztest.at).}

{Note: the recording resolution is the resolution of the actual recorded video of your browser window. Make a test recording to find out. For example, be aware that Windows Display Scaling can change the recording resolution, OBS Studio can scale the recording, the browser window may not be maximised to full screen, etc.}

{Enter the name, version, and platform of the video editing software and any transcoding software you plan to use.}

{Explain that ad blockers will not be used (uninstalled, disabled).}

{Explain that use of cookies will be left up to each test user.}

{Explain how faces will be blurred or pixelated in the screen recordings.}

{Describe the external video equipment (tripod, video camera, microphone, mirror) which will be used to record the tests.}

6 Training

{Describe any interface training to be given to each user. For example, a special input device, window manager, or software.}

{Describe any training on thinking aloud to be given to each user. How will the facilitator demonstrate the thinking aloud technique? Will the user be able to practice it?}

7 Test Tasks

{Task 1 (impressions) is given, simply adapt the name of the web site. Immediately after Task 1, the facilitator will ask the user the three questions given.}

{Suggest four further tasks for users to perform on your client's web site, in increasing order of difficulty. Do not ask questions immediately after these tasks.}

{If you are testing in German, formulate these tasks in German and provide English translations.}

Table 3 shows the tasks which we suggest might be used.

8 Interview Questions

{If you are testing in German, formulate these questions in German and provide English translations.}

The following questions will be asked of each user immediately after the final task:

• Opening Question

  {The first question should always be "How was it?", an open question to encourage the user to speak freely.}

  • "How was it?" ["Wie war's?"]

    {Then let the user speak, and encourage them, until they dry up and stop of their own accord.}

• Standard Questions

  {Next, you ask a series of standard questions prepared in advance for every test user. More general questions should come first, more specific questions later. At least four standard questions should be asked in this section. Two are already suggested, add at least two more of your own.}

  1. "Did anything strike you as particularly good?"
     ["Gab es etwas, dass besonders gut oder positiv aufgefallen ist?"]
  2. "Did anything strike you as particularly bad?"
     ["Gab es etwas, dass besonders schlecht war?"]
  3. "..."

• Individual Questions

  At this point, any questions which arise during the test with each particular test user, will be asked.

9 Data Collection

{Explain that demographic, behavioural, and attitudinal data collected during the study will be associated with a TPid and first name alias. Test users will only be referred to by these in the report.}

{Explain that personal data (real name, signed consent form, and the full video recordings) collected from the test persons will be kept separately and will be deleted after one year.}

{Explain that any faces in the video clips used to illustrate findings in the report will be blurred or pixelated.}

References

{References to related work and related studies. Include at least two more references of your own. Do not include references to Wikipedia (or copies of Wikipedia). You may remove or retain my sample references as you wish. All references listed here must be cited somewhere in the document.}

[And2023]

Keith Andrews; Human-Computer Interaction: Course Notes; 13 Mar 2023. http://courses.isds.tugraz.at/hci/hci.pdf

[Bar2020]

Carol M. Barnum; Usability Testing Essentials; 2^nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2020. ISBN 0128169427.

A Test Team Materials

{If you are testing in German, explain that you are using German versions of the user-facing materials.}