Results

After writing the Best Practice Model methodology document, we conducted a usability test based on it. From this we gathered some interesting results.

One for the most interesting things is that after using the website, users personal biases towards brands overrode some of the gathered metrics. One participant with a strong affinity to the Apple brand rated their website above that of HTC, despite completing the tasks quicker and easier than on the HTC website.

The other interesting result was that the participant with the lowest baseline emotional engagement was the only one who significantly changed their view on a website after using it.

The next step it to write up a report that covers what we have done and our conclusions on the project as a whole.

Testing Methodologies

Through research it has been discovered that when conducting emotional engagement testing towards brands, PR companies first test the participants on their brand engagement and then assign them to a group based on their emotional response level. Some people have high emotional engagement towards brands, others much less. By grouping participants in this way, it is possible to see Usability testing with respect to  people's differing emotional engagement levels.

It is proposed that this can feed into the groups research, by pre testing people and working out their prior engagement levels, this will add more quality to the data gained from the usability study.

FaceReader

FaceReader 6 by Track Sys is a piece of software that uses a webcam to capture emotions a person is expressing. A demonstration of the software has been arranged so that the group can evaluate its suitability for the project. It's thought that if it works, it can help with establishing the kinds of emotions that users feel when both interacting with the websites and viewing the adverts.

http://www.tracksys.co.uk/product-details.php?id=20

Experimental design, the best practice model?

Having a presentation in front of everyone in the class along with Professor Vesna and Martin today,
we are still working on our Branded UX experimental design at the moment, the the simple before/ after or input/ output design will probably server as the base for our future testing/ experiment, we will know it very soon.

GSR related summary

• Modern GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) or SCR (Skin Conductance Response), measures

a.electrical conductance

b.sweat-gland activity

as an indication of psychological or physiological arousal.

• GSR has been proven that 

a.correlated with marketplace performance, can be used as a tool to predict sales performance, promise of higher predictive validity that data generated from consumer self-reports.

b.GSR readings are co-temporaneous with the presentation of the actual stimuli, they permit the precise identification of the more motivating and less motivating subelements.

• Since the GSR has been invented and used for over 130 years, it's trustworthy.

• GSR measurement equipment is highly sensitive and affordable.

• GSR readings may be analysis by computer for greater scale of test.