Riverside Publishing
The Situation
A Houghton Mifflin division that markets such leading educational test products as the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Riverside Publishing retained Solid State to research the usability of test score reports distributed to teachers, school administrators and parents and recommend clarity upgrades. Separately, Solid State designed a comparative test technology study for Riverside to measure the usability and appeal of digital interactive tests proposed for product development.
The Approach
Solid State designed surveys and field studies to expose opportunities for improving graphical score reports and guide development of digital test platforms. Data gathering efforts ranged from focus groups to online surveys to tightly formatted usability interviews measuring speed and accuracy of information retrieval. Solid State used the resulting data to design new score report prototypes for Riverside. To gauge the effectiveness of high-tech test platforms as alternatives to traditional paper tests, Solid State developed a set of interactive prototypes and moderated comparative rating-and-ranking events across the US attended by teachers and other end users.
