Recently Nielsen conducted a study on the reading speeds between the printed book, Kindle and iPad. From 24 users the study concluded that the iPad took about 6.2% longer (p =.06) and Kindle about 10% longer (p <.01) to read than the same story on a printed book. From this data Nielsen concluded “Books Faster
If you have an iPhone, you probably love it like I do. You probably also use it a lot like I do. The features and apps and, of course, the user interface make using the iPhone a rich and rewarding experience. Where I once had to wait till I got to my computer to send
How long does it take users to complete a task? We really don’t know. Instead we have to take our best guess from a sample of users. But if you had to pick a single number to summarize how long it would take typical users to complete a task from a usability test what would
While it might seem like having users think aloud while they complete a task will increase the time on task—the literature is actually mixed. Some studies report no difference, some show longer task times for thinking aloud and others report faster task times for thinking aloud. It has been hypothesized that the reason users can
It is common to think of time-on-task data gathered only during summative evaluations because, during a formative evaluation, the focus is on finding and fixing problems, or at least finding the problems and delivering a report. For a variety of reasons, time-on-task measures often get left out of the mix. In this article, I show
Continuous Data Efficiency is one of the cardinal aspects of a product’s usability. The amount of time it takes for a user to complete a task is one of the best predictors of efficiency because it: Illustrates the slightest variability (in seconds) that are more difficult to detect in other measures like errors Is a
