Critical Incident Training


Critical Incident taking is a qualitative technique of collecting data during formative usability evaluation (usability testing). A critical incident is something that happens while a participant is working with the system that has negative effect on task performance or user satisfaction. This kind of data is one of the most important kinds of formative evaluation data. A critical incident is an indication of a usability problem encountered by the user while performing a task using the system. This kind of critical incident could manifest itself by causing confusion, affecting user performance, or disrupting the user task thread.
An example: - A misleading button causes the user more navigation due to extra click of the back button.
Spotting Critical Incidents


Critical incidents can be very subtle and hence very easy to miss. It is necessary to pay careful attention to detailed participant behavior and to what the user says during the task performance. Spotting critical incidents is a skill that will improve with experience.

Demonstrations of Critical Incident occurences


The following two sets of movies demonstrate users encountering critical incident's during task performance. In the first video of each set, you will see and hear several examples, narrated by the user. In the second video of each set, you will hear an expert narrating the actions of the user, explaining which events are considered critical incidents.


Instructions for downloading and playing the Camtasia movies

This Critical Incident training page contains four Camtasia "movies" in the form of .avi files. If you click on them, you will probably get the default way of playing them. AVI files by default are played by the system by downloading to the system temp folder and then by using the system's default media player (e.g., Windows Media Player) to play them on your client machine. The Real One Player or the Windows Media Player also provide for acceptable viewing but please set the View to Full screen if you use these players. However, the .avi files provided below are best viewed with the Camtasia Player available at ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/camtasiastudio/CamPlay.zip. An alternative (often better) way is to right-click on the .avi files and save them somewhere, and then play them on your client machine.


Task1: To use the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) to find the titles of all movies featuring both Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.

1. First, click here for the user's perspective of the task performance and write down a list of the critical incidents that you were able to spot as the movie is played. You may replay this movie as often as needed to get a complete list.

2. When you are satisfied with your list of critical incidents, then click here for the movie clip with the expert's view and compare it with your results list.


Task2: To use the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) to find the titles of all mystery movies from 1966 to 1967 produced in French.

1. First, click here for the user's perspective of the task performance and write down a list of the critical incidents that you were able to spot as the movie is played. You may replay this movie as often as needed to get a complete list.

2. When you are satisfied with your list of critical incidents, then click here for the movie clip with the expert's view and compare it with your results list.