Usability Lab Tips

Ovo Studios has compiled answers to some frequently asked questions that come up while designing labs. Use this information to build your own lab or to guide your interactions and decisions with lab vendors. The information on this page is provided for informational purposes and you use the information at your own risk.

Why do I need a dedicated resource to manage my lab?
How big should my lab be?
What is HVAC and why do I care about it?
What about one-way glass?
How do I soundproof my lab?
What else should I think about when I design my lab?

Why do I need a dedicated resource to manage my lab?

Usability labs are complex facilities with equipment that can burn out, plugs that can be disconnect, and cables that can be cut by careless facilities staff who are earning time-and-a-half on the weekend. To protect your investment in the facility itself and your investment in the activities you conduct in the facility, you need an on-site person who can triage a malfunctioning lab. Failure to staff a "lab manager" position is a huge risk that wise executives will avoid.

How big should my lab be?

The sketch at right shows a a lab with generous room dimensions. If you have to reduce room dimensions, reduce them in this order:

Reduce 10' Control Room dimension.
Reduce 18' Observation room dimension*.
Reduce the 14' overall lab width.

Regarding the countertop, have your countertop vendor cut 5" wide x 1.5" deep notches along the rear edge of counter. These are your cable pass-throughs. Place these every 1.5'.

*Try to keep the Observation Room as large as possible. This permits it to be used as a conference room, whiteboard design room, and multimedia room.

What is HVAC and why do I care about it?

HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) is one of the most vexing aspects of building a usability lab. Many of us work in offices where the existing office space is often too hot or too cold. Further subdividing this space leads to incredible challenges for environmental control within the lab space.

Often, usability labs are cold because thermostats are placed in control rooms. Control room equipment can generate a lot of heat, which results in the entire lab being cooled. In the cases of the user room and the observation room, these rooms can end up being cooled excessively.

Ovo Studios uses LCD monitors in the control room in an effort to reduce the overall heat load in that room.

In a perfect world, every room would have its own thermostat because they each have a unique environment. The HVAC person you work with will most likely give you one thermostat for a three-room lab suite. If you value your users, put the thermostat in their room. You'll know how to dress appropriately for the control room environment and can instruct observers to dress appropriately.

What about one-way glass?

This topic has a variety of names: one-way glass, one-way mirrors, and silvered glass are just a few that come to mind. When you deal with glass vendors, they will know what you mean regardless of which of those terms you use.

Anyway, one-way glass and tinted glass are probably the most mysterious aspects of lab design. Here are recommendations for both that have worked for me in the past:

Build your one-way window out of two piece of glass:
(1) Tinted Glass - 25% smoked gray
(2) One-way Glass - just order "one-way glass"
Separate them with an air barrier
Don't worry about having the two pieces of glass being parallel to each other.

How do I soundproof my lab?

Soundproofing is the most important aspect of a usability lab, but unless you take extraordinary construction efforts, you will not have a soundproof lab. Most labs, and your lab will be no exception, are sound-resistant, not sound-proof. The best soundproofing tips are behavioral:

Keep your voice down
Do not say or do anything you would not say or do if the user were sitting right next to you

Having said that, there are things you can do to attenuate the noise that will enter the User Room from adjacent lab spaces:

Walls should go all the way to the upper deck.

Walls should be filled with insulation.

Double layers of sheetrock help.

Attach weather stripping to the bottom of doors leading directly from the Control Room into the User Room. (The aluminum kind with rubber wipers that rub the floor.) Directly adjoining doors are usually the greatest source of sound infiltration.

Some lab vendors advocate caulking ceiling tiles in place. I've never done this, but go right ahead. Heaven help you when you need to get into the ceiling at a later date.

What else should I think about when I design my lab?

Storage: Design your lab with as much closet storage as you can. Closets let you store all sorts of things:

Boxes for shipping equipment back to vendors in the event of breakage.
Blank video tapes or video tapes from previous tests, if you are into video tape
Files.
Extra cables.
A Portable Lab if you have one.

Coat Racks: If you live in an environment where people wear coats, put coat racks in all rooms.