Empirical study of Team Usability Testing: a laboratory experiment

Abstract

The evaluation of groupware has a long history; several researchers have investigated this research area and made attempts to develop evaluation methods. This paper aims to make a contribution to this research topic by introducing a groupware evaluation method called Team Usability Testing. The goal of this method is to evaluate the usability of real-time distributed groupware. The Team Usability Test consists of a combination of questionnaires, on-screen behaviour recordings and interviews. The data analysis is based on the mechanics of collaboration theoretical framework and involves communication analysis, behaviour analysis, and analysis of post-experiment interviews. A laboratory experiment and a field study constitute the two main phases of the creation of the usability testing method. In this paper, the results of the laboratory experiment and its implications for the field study will be discussed. According to the results, the Team Usability Test is able to explore team-level usability problems and contextual problems. The paper ends with the discussion of future field research considerations related to the possible application of the Team Usability Test in real-life work settings.