Member-only story
Methods to evaluate the text or content of your UI
Over the last weeks, I have been looking for different ways to evaluate the text/copy/content on an interface or in communications with users. Previosly, I have mainly evaluated content to check if users can read and understand it. So, I looked for methods that would go beyond evaluating comprehension too. Below is a summary of methods that I have used or found after conversations with fellow researchers or after searching online articles. All the methods can be used for evaluating text but several of them are suited to evaluating content beyond text too, for example, Task-based usability testing and Five-second test.
Much thanks to Hester Bruikman,Angela Colter, Pete Gale, Colleen Jones, Fred Leise, Renate Verstappen, and Sara Zailskas Walsh for sharing their experience and knowledge online or in-person :).
Evaluations with users
These methods involve testing with users to determine the comprehension or tone/emotional aspects of the text or content of your interface.
Cloze test for comprehension
Cloze Test is used to evaluate the reading ability of people as well for readability or comprehension of the text. It was first described by W.L. Taylor in 1953. In her excellent article — Testing content, Angela Colter describes how to do this test,
It seems to me that this is a useful test for text longer than a few sentences. Below is an example of a Cloze test I created using this tool. Also, this post lists different tools you can use to create a cloze test.
Task-based Usability Test for comprehension
This test is a typical task-based user test where you ask the users to perform tasks, preferably open tasks, that are representative of how they use your website or system. You observe if they understand the information that they come across, if and how do they use it, and how do they perceive it. I would strongly recommend reading Angela’s article here if you choose to go forward with this method.
