A Questionnaire For User Feedback

Question

I've written an Android application as part of my masters thesis, used to algorithmically census flamingos in Kenya. It's going out to Kenya tomorrow, unfortunately I'm not going with the application. I need to collect user feedback, in the computer sense it's been tested, however I'm not a member of Kenyan Wildlife Services.

I've got the standard "how do you find this feature and that layout etc." on a scale of one to ten but am wondering if any guidelines exist for discovering user experience/satisfaction which will make the analysis of the answers easier?

Answer 1

Having a background in instructional design, I would recommend taking a look at the title Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing and Presenting Usability Metrics by Thomas Tullis and William Albert (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008). Chapter 6 in particular covers self-reported metrics, giving brief outlines and tips on how to collect and analyze self-reported data.

For example, the authors mention that the number of values on a rating scale can be an issue. An odd number of values has a center, or a neutral point, whereas an even number of values forces the user to slightly favor one end of the scale or the other. Personally, I happen to agree with the authors' opinion that a neutral reaction to something is perfectly valid and the rating scale should allow users to report that. Therefore, I would probably tend to use rating scales with an odd number of values, perhaps five or seven, unless there was a compelling reason not to.

There is also a companion website: http://www.measuringux.com/.

Finally, there is a Usability Professionals' Association that might give you more information: http://www.upassoc.org/

Best of luck with your thesis.