Research & Testing Strategy

Note: This is a work-in-progress document.

Our Research & Testing Strategy is framed around answering these questions:

1. What is necessary to make a usable open source library for Developers?
2. What is necessary to make a usable FORMS Best Practices Guide for both Developers and Non-technical Users?
3. What are the most important features to add to U.S. Forms System library next?

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What is necessary to make a usable open source library for Developers?

1. Research

   1. Define user personas (and determine the smallest set of experience required, per Scratch Interview)
   2. Interview developers or other professionals who have experience with open source communities
   3. Interview UX professionals who have experience testing open source tools
   4. Do a comparative analysis of existing "good" open source tools and cite patterns in their developer experience
   5. Research Hackathon best practices

2. Documentation

   1. Post interviews on the wiki
   2. Post interview takeaways and comparative analysis findings in a doc on the wiki

3. Testing

   1. Start with a simple paper form and ask users (developers—user personas TBD) to use the tool to simply replicate it as a web form
   2. Determine bugs and documentation usability problems
   3. Fix the above
   4. After bugs and usability problems have been addressed, hold a Forms Hackathon wherein participants bring real government paper or PDF forms that they will transform into web forms during the event
   5. Forms made from the Hackathon can be featured as exemplars in the U.S. Forms repo

4. Dates

What is necessary to make a usable FORMS Best Practices Guide for both Developers and Non-technical Users?

1. Research

   1. Define user personas
   2. Interview USDS UX professionals to gather forms best practices for government form users (include PRA)
   3. Research best forms practices (private sector) that are also applicable
   4. Do a comparative analysis of writing styles and framing devices on best practice guides (e.g. are rhetorical questions the most effective framing device? Is a linear, step-by-step guide ideal? Or just a simple set of topics?)
   5. (optional, probably for later) Research alternative ways of integrating rhetorical questions into a form-builder GUI in order to make a seamless producer experience that organically leads to a great end-user experience

2. Documentation

   1. Capture the above research in raw form in the wiki
   2. Write a summary document and put in wiki
   3. Write a draft plain language Best Practices Guide for testing

3. Usability Testing

   1. Test Idea #1: Start with a simple paper form and ask users (developers or pair of 1 developer and 1 non-technical user) to use both the tool and the Best Practices Guide to transform the form into a web form (and improve it).
   2. Test Idea #2: Start with a more complex paper form and ask a non-technical user to use just the Best Practices Guide to map out (either on paper or software they are comfortable with) a better form experience that a developer could create using the tool.
   3. Write 2nd, 3rd, etc… drafts of the Guide based on test results!

4. Dates

What are the most important features to add to U.S. Forms System library next?

1. Research

   1. Create an inventory of existing features to establish an accurate baseline
   2. Create an inventory of missing features that exist on other government forms
   3. Determine the forms we want to use as exemplars of the tool and cite missing features necessary to build them
   4. Prioritize new features based on the exemplars
   5. After Hackathon, do a comparative analysis of existing form builders (both open source and non) to start a backlog of nice-to-have features.
   6. After our community starts making feature requests, new feature prioritization can evolve based on this community activity

2. Documentation

   1. All of the above will first be captured in the wiki, but soon they will be move to and live in issues

3. Usability Testing

   1. New features for specific exemplar forms will be tested on that form's users first
   2. Non-specific new features will be tested for usability and accessibility using the VA's apparatus

4. Dates