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By Jim Jones Building a web app consists of stressful choices. Should the signup button be red or blue? Does my site's sales pitch sound awkward? What will the user think about my site the first five seconds they visit? Using Rails and Amazon's Mechanical Turk service, I will show you how you can perform usability tests, A/B testing and gain valuable feedback on your site BEFORE launching your app to a single real user. I'll walk you through : 1) Sample code for quickly integrating your Rails site with Mechanical Turk 2) How to structure your HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) so that you solicit detailed feedback from the workers. 3) Integrating A/B testing so that you can quickly decide which design component is better 4) Tactics for stopping automated bots from ruining your usability tests Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/FG9X/
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In the video titled 'No Traffic, No Users, No Problem! - Usability Testing for New Apps,' Jim Jones discusses effective methods for conducting usability testing on web apps before they are launched. The video emphasizes the stress involved in making design decisions for web applications and presents a practical solution using Amazon's Mechanical Turk service to gather user feedback. The following key points are covered in detail: - **Usability Testing Needs**: Jones highlights the difficulties developers face when trying to get feedback on their web app designs without formal usability testing services. - **Mechanical Turk Introduction**: An overview of Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace where small tasks can be assigned to a large pool of online workers, is provided. Jones explains the structure of a Human Intelligence Task (HIT) and how responses from workers (termed 'turkers') can be utilized for meaningful insights. - **Integration with Rails**: The presentation includes sample code for integrating Mechanical Turk with a Rails application. Jones introduces tools like the Turbo gem and the TURK gem, which facilitate creating HITs and collecting feedback efficiently. - **Fast Feedback Mechanisms**: The Forward gem is suggested for exposing local development environments, allowing quick feedback collection without deployment. - **Soliciting Meaningful Feedback**: Tips are shared on how to ask for valuable feedback, including making personal appeals and promoting an environment where constructive criticism is welcomed. - **A/B Testing**: Jones discusses the Vanity gem for conducting A/B testing within Rails applications, sharing personal examples of tests done on homepage images and their impact on user engagement. - **Handling Spam Data**: Strategies for mitigating spam submissions on Mechanical Turk are shared, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the quality of feedback received. - **Creative Uses of Mechanical Turk**: The video concludes by discussing innovative applications of Mechanical Turk, such as content creation and problem-solving through collaborative efforts. The presentation also highlights research findings regarding the effectiveness and timing of task submissions on Mechanical Turk, illustrating the platform's potential beyond conventional uses. In conclusion, Jones encourages developers to leverage usability testing and feedback mechanisms to improve their web applications prior to launch, promoting a culture of experimentation and iteration in development practices. Overall, the video serves as a valuable guide for developers looking to enhance their app's usability through crowd-sourced feedback before going live.
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