Evaluation Plan

In order to evaluate the usability of the CalStARS website, user tests will need to be conducted. Participants will be selected in such a way that the two user groups - student-athletes and administrators - are equally represented. Ideally the participant population will include at least one returning student-athlete, one first-year student-athlete, and one first-year transfer student in order to cover the greatest amount of functionality of the website. Administrative participants should be recruited from both the Compliance Office and the Office of Faculty Representatives.


During testing, participants will be asked to complete the tasks outlined in the scenarios described in Section 8.2 of this document. These scenarios were designed to ensure that each task incorporated a main feature of the interface. The same procedure will be used during each user test. An hour will be set aside for each session. A facilitator will explain the purpose of the website and of the user interface testing. Another person will take detailed notes about the testing process. Each test participant will be asked to think aloud as he or she completes the tasks in the scenarios with little or no guidance from the facilitator. At the end of each session, the facilitator will ask the test participant about his or her impressions of the interface and answer any questions the participant might have.


The following are the test measures for this set of user tests: