Collins Education is one of the leading educational publishers in the UK, producing not only books, but also CD-ROMs and online materials for the UK and international schools and colleges. It publishes a full range of textbooks and teaching resources for Primary, Secondary and FE Colleges, covering all curriculum areas.
Shift Learning worked with Collins Education to usability test a new interactive electronic resource. Two rounds of testing were completed at different stages in the development lifecycle: paper prototype and interactive prototype.
"Conducting usability tests at an early stage in the production cycle allowed Collins to better tailor the learning system to the needs of teachers. They were able to change the specification before the development work started, saving time and money."
Cheryl Luzet, Usability Consultant, Shift Learning
Participants
At Shift Learning, we have extensive experience in recruiting participants in the higher education and schools sector. We selected a sample of teachers and students to test the product.
Paper Prototype Stage
Testing began even before the programmers started work using the initial designs in paper format. This paper prototype was shown to teachers and students to gain feedback on the general design and functionality and test the icons for recognition. Collins were able to incorporate the feedback and recommendations received from Shift Learning into the next round of development.
Interactive Prototype Stage
Teachers were asked to perform realistic tasks on the software and their behaviour was observed. The participants were encouraged to think aloud as they worked which offered an insight into their choices. Collins Education was supplied with a report detailing the problem areas of the product along with expert recommendations of how these obstacles could be overcome.
Collins found that working with an external agency for their usability testing provided unbiased feedback, fresh ideas and expert solutions to the usability problems highlighted by Shift Learning.
"The professionals at Shift Media (now Learning) brought real usability expertise to the job and gave very concrete recommendations to improve the software."
Arjen Jansen, Production Director, Collins Education
