Title
Automatic Detection of Usability Problem Encounters in Think-aloud Sessions
Abstract
Think-aloud protocols are a highly valued usability testing method for identifying usability problems. Despite the value of conducting think-aloud usability test sessions, analyzing think-aloud sessions is often time-consuming and labor-intensive. Consequently, previous research has urged the community to develop techniques to support fast-paced analysis. In this work, we took the first step to design and evaluate machine learning (ML) models to automatically detect usability problem encounters based on users’ verbalization and speech features in think-aloud sessions. Inspired by recent research that shows subtle patterns in users’ verbalizations and speech features tend to occur when they encounter problems, we examined whether these patterns can be utilized to improve the automatic detection of usability problems. We first conducted and recorded think-aloud sessions and then examined the effect of different input features, ML models, test products, and users on usability problem encounters detection. Our work uncovers several technical and user interface design challenges and sets a baseline for automating usability problem detection and integrating such automation into UX practitioners’ workflow.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1145/3385732
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems
Keywords
DocType
Volume
AI-assisted UX analysis method,Think aloud,machine learning,speech features,usability problem,user experience (UX),verbalization
Journal
10
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2
2160-6455
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.35
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mingming Fan193.46
Yue Li2151.34
Khai N. Truong32002162.82