Usability research enables researchers to pinpoint the opportunities and challenges in the product design, and my research at Rice focuses on methodological challenges in the usability research.
My Master’s thesis compared usability metrics collected via surveys against benchmark lab testing data, in which I found consistent subjective metrics between two assessment methods.
From this project, I learnt the benefits and disadvantages of these assessment methods in the hands-on research design and study deployment. There is also consideration of weighing between different metrics: because the products I evaluated in this project were medical devices, serious consequences may arise if the device is ineffective or inefficient to use. In this scenario, efficiency and effectiveness may be more critical metrics than subjective satisfaction.
My dissertation project identified six languages that are influential in HCI research (Arabic, Chinese, French, Germain, Hindi, and Spanish), and created a toolkit for subjective usability assessment by translating and validating the System Usability Scale in those six languages.
This was a learning opportunity for me from so many aspects. I identified and connected to researchers and language experts around the globe to discuss and improve the quality of translations. I experimented multiple sources of collecting survey data in the metric validation studies. I even picked up a few words in the languages that I have never studied before.
I was able to validate the usability survey in all languages except Hindi. It was the result of a trade-off among sources of participants, quality of the data, and numbers of languages I can validate. In the end, I chose to run parallel studies in all languages on one platform that is less influenced by credit-driven workers than other platforms, at the cost of sufficient sample size in the Hindi study.
Listed below are the research projects that I have described above and major course projects
Multi-Cultural Usability Assessment with System Usability Scale
Dissertation Project (Supervisor: Dr. Philip Kortum)
Journal article in preparation
Usability Evaluation on Home Healthcare Devices
Thesis Project (Supervisor: Dr. Philip Kortum)
Poster Presentation 2015: User testing in the lab
Poster Presentation 2017: Comparing results from user tests and online survey
Other studies that I have presented in public include:
Psychometric Evaluation of USE Questionnaire