Anselm, Dears and Meels, Oh My!

There are the deer that are hunted and the meals that are eaten. 

But there is another kind of DEAR and another type of MEEL that relates to the world of our customers and usability.
 
Anselm Academic encountered both of these usability versions of DEARS and MEELS as they conducted their recent usability testing of the College Study Bible

In usability, DEAR is the acronym for:

• DISCOVERY: where we discover the unique tasks our customers carry out
• EVALUATION: where we test those tasks to see how easily they can be done
• ANALYSIS: where we analyze what happened
• REPORT: where we report the findings

How this played out in a real project:

Anselm did site visits to DISCOVER what their customer’s tasks were.  Then they EVALUATED those tasks through a usability test.  They then ANALYZED what happened in the usability test and REPORTED out the summary findings. Finally, based on all of this, the team then recommended specific changes that should be made to make the Bible easier for users to navigate.

In the usability test, team Anselm was testing, marking, analyzing and reporting a number of different aspects of the customer’s use of the product. They were looking at the MEELS of the product:

• Memorability:  Can users remember where things are located in the product
• Errors: Do users make mistakes when using the product because it’s not functioning the way they expect or need it to?
• Efficiency: Can users carry out their tasks quickly?
• Learnability: Was it easy for the users to figure out how to use the product, how to follow the structure/organization that is set up in the product?
• Satisfaction: Were users satisfied in their use of the product?

In concrete terms, Anselm was testing to see if users could REMEMBER where things were located in the Bible based on the design, navigation and organization helps that were currently provided in the Bible. They wanted to see how many ERRORS users made and what design, navigation, organization helps could be provided to decrease errors. Anselm was testing to see how EFFICIENTLY users could carry out tasks and navigate around the Bible. The team wanted to understand how easily users could LEARN how to use the Bible and the navigation and organization helps available. Finally, the team wanted to understand how satisfied the users were with their experience of the Bible.

If you haven't heard about Anselm's recent experience and learnings, I encourage you to check in with PJ, Kristi, Brad, Jerry, Maura or Penny and ask them about their experience. There is much we could learn from their recent immersion in this process.

Congrats Team Anselm!