Comparison of Testing Environments with Children for Usability Problem Identification

This paper report the results of an empirical study which was carried out to investigate the effect of testing environment on the results of usability evaluation process. The study involved 54 school children from India in the age range of 11-13 years. Children were asked to perform books searching tasks with International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL). Children’s activities with ICDL were captured by using CamStudio, an open source screen capturing software. The effect was quantified in terms of number of usability problems identified by the children when they were tested in various testing environments. The results are indicative that field testing with children can be a viable solution in terms of reduced time taken to complete the given tasks and reduced frustration levels reported by the children during the tests. Keywordsusability evaluation; children; think-aloud; constructive interaction; problem identification;