Introduction

The goal of the peer review and testing phase of our project is to determine the intuitiveness and functionality of the Virti-cue social story prototype. Preece, Rogers & Sharp (2002) emphasize that by testing a product with a small sample of users with these goals in mind, we can “concentrate on what data to look for and what to do with it once it is gathered” (p. 292). Through think-alouds, observation and documenting usability with a tracking sheet, and post-user questionnaire, we hope to gain a better understanding of the challenges and successes our users encounter to inform improvement upon our design.

Our data gathering methods reflects triangulation, a strategy that provides “different perspectives and corroboration of findings across techniques, thus leading to more rigorous and defensible findings” (p. 293). First, think-alouds will facilitate “understanding (of) what is going on in a person’s head” (p. 336). By documenting the thinking pathways of our users, we can gain an understanding of how intuitive our prototype is to navigate through. Also, observations will support “how well the developing prototype supports these tasks and goals” (p. 321). How well our users perform on creating, editing, and viewing an existing social story will reveal any functionality issues with the product. Lastly, the post-user questionnaire contains open-ended questions and is worded to “resolve any ambiguities or misunderstandings” (p. 308). Information gathered on areas of success and suggestions for improvement of our product will inform the direction of our design.