DialogDesign – Comparative Usability Evaluation – CUE
NONE OF THESE THINGS IS JUST LIKE THE OTHERS…

You may be surprised. Even a task as (seemingly) transparent as usability testing Microsoft’s hotmail.com elicited different data based on different approaches to usability testing.

Molich, Ede, Kaasgaard and Karyukin (2004) reports on the findings of the Comparative Usability Evaluation Study (CUE-2). This meta-analysis describes the usability testing approaches and results across nine independent usability groups asked to conduct a “standard” usability test of hotmail.com. The teams included six industry labs, two university-based teams with commercial activities and two student teams. Each team was provided the same project background information and access to a “Marketing Liaison” for
further clarification or feedback on their proposed methods.