CIFter Tasks-Readme

What the directory contains:

• this file -- Readme.html
• CIFter_Tasks.html -- list of tasks specified by TMF.
• CIFter_Tasks.doc -- same content as the html file but useful for editing to produce testing materials 

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Description:

These documents contain the description of the requirements compiled by Motley Fool regarding their areas of interest for evaluation. Each task, where possible, also lists one or more possible solutions (labelled EXPERT PATH).

Why will you use these documents:

All user testing requires the creation of tasks. To start you off, TMF has delineated some areas of their site where feedback on usability would be helpful. The descriptions contained in these documents are most easily viewed as requirements. This means that each task will probably have to be refined to produce actual user tasks. When reporting your results in the Common Industry Format (CIF), you will need to include the actual tasks rather than these prototype tasks in the appropriate section.

** IMPORTANT ** At a minimum, you will need to edit the document(s) to delete the "Expert Path"! If you are using Method #3 referred to in the Overview, you will also need to decide on ID's for the tasks; tentative TaskID's are provided.

Requirements:

User tests that are constructed for this experimental evaluation are required to address each of the 10 tasks that are listed in these documents. In some of the task descriptions, there are 2-8 possible subtasks. Explore as many of these sub-options as you can within the constraints on your time and your subject's attention span.

For more information:

Please email us at cifter [at] nist.gov (cifter[at]nist[dot]gov) if you have questions. For official CIFter project participants, Professor Wayne Gray has agreed to act as the intermediary with TMF with respect to questions about tasks. Do not attempt to contact TMF directly since this would compromise the integrity of the research design of this project.

Notes:

Both Word97 and html versions of the tasks have been provided. If your evaluation method involves hardcopy, the former might be useful for constructing your test materials. 

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