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Nov 03, 2003 4:32 pm		Listening lab method
Kyle Pero		Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good, has posted an article on his site about a new method for conducting user tests, which he has dubbed “the listening lab”: http://tinyurl.com/tgk6 Mark points out that the major difference between a listening lab and a traditional user test is that you DO NOT DEFINE TASKS BEFOREHAND. He goes on to explain that by preparing a set of tasks beforehand you are “presuming to guess how customers use the service, without even talking to them first”. I understand where Mark is coming from, but his method only works for sites that are just a “strategic representation of the business”. If you conduct user interviews before building a site then shouldn’t the architecture reflect the needs, wants, expectations, etc. of the users and the business already? Therefore the tasks for your user test would come from what you’ve already learned about your user group and the business needs. My point is that you shouldn’t be learning about your users tasks for the first time during a user test. You should already know them through other usability methods conducted in the very beginning of the project. How do you build an architecture to test if you don’t even know what the expected tasks of the user are? Has anyone in the group used a method like the listening lab before? If so, what have your results been? Is anyone tempted to try this method or do you think it’s better to conduct other usability methods beforehand to understand your target audience and conduct a traditional user test (with tasks already prepared)? - Kyle Private Reply to Kyle Pero (new win)

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