Abstract
Internet firms have shared a common sense that agile user research is significant for agile developments. The unmoderated test, as one of the most commonly used qualitative approaches, has been widely adopted. Such an approach requires participants’ trained skill of think aloud, and the remote unmoderated test platforms compensated for such a lack with their huge, trained user database. However, there is an inevasible bias that participants go for bonuses, thereby muck the tests or please the researcher. Would it reduce bias by innovatively applying stepped tasks in the remote unmoderated test? The research carries out pilot tests for validating the feasibility and identify the correct approach of applying stepped task in the situation of the remote unmoderated test. The user test of an online shopping platform is elaborated as a case study for validation of such an innovative approach. The research concludes that stepped tasks can be applied in remote unmoderated tests. However, the form of stepped task applied in remote unmoderated tests differs from the traditional moderated test which requires face-to-face communication between researcher and participants. To apply stepped task in the situations as remote usability test and unmoderated test, researchers need to 1) design tasks within a natural user journey and add connecting tasks which do not represent test objectives as to hide the test motivation from the participants; 2) observe user’s natural behaviors at the beginning, and investigate user’s motivations latter; 3) define stepped tasks’ level of detail through piolet tests.
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He, S. (2021). Applying Stepped Task in Remote Unmoderated Test: A Case Report. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S. (eds) HCI International 2021 - Posters. HCII 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1419. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78635-9_5
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