HCI Testing in Laboratory or Field Settings

This paper presents perspectives from both academia and practice on how an HCI testing is to be conducted and the deliberations that go into the testing. HCI testing can be conducted in closed-door laboratory or in a field setting. While there is an increased interest in field testing of an HCI artifact, there is always an enduring concern over how to administer a field testing given that the testers will have less control over the course of testing. In this paper, we cover HCI testing deliberation as well as the operational issues of field testing, and conclude the paper with an exemplary case of a large-scale field testing conducted in Taiwan.