Beyond the Five-User Assumption: Benefits of Increased Sample Sizes in Usability Testing Export

@article{citeulike:2915216, abstract = {It is widely assumed that 5 participants suffice for usability testing. In this study, 60 users were tested and random sets of 5 or more were sampled from the whole, to demonstrate the risks of using only 5 participants and the benefits of using more. Some of the randomly selected sets of 5 participants found 99\% of the problems; other sets found only 55\%. With 10 users, the lowest percentage of problems revealed by any one set was increased to 80\%, and with 20 users, to 95\%.}, author = {Faulkner, Laura}, citeulike-article-id = {2915216}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://tc.eserver.org/27411.html}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, \& Computers}, keywords = {usability, usability\_test}, number = {3}, posted-at = {2008-06-22 15:40:23}, priority = {2}, title = {Beyond the Five-User Assumption: Benefits of Increased Sample Sizes in Usability Testing}, url = {http://tc.eserver.org/27411.html}, volume = {35}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2915216 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2915216 N2 - It is widely assumed that 5 participants suffice for usability testing. In this study, 60 users were tested and random sets of 5 or more were sampled from the whole, to demonstrate the risks of using only 5 participants and the benefits of using more. Some of the randomly selected sets of 5 participants found 99% of the problems; other sets found only 55%. With 10 users, the lowest percentage of problems revealed by any one set was increased to 80%, and with 20 users, to 95%. IS - 3 JF - Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers TI - Beyond the Five-User Assumption: Benefits of Increased Sample Sizes in Usability Testing VL - 35 KW - usability KW - usability_test AU - Faulkner, Laura PY - 2003/// UR - http://tc.eserver.org/27411.html ER -