Our complete draft of our instructions on "How to Use Engineering Equation Solver (EES)" is attached as a PDF file. We would appreciate any feedback you could provide. The text for our usability test is provided below. Additionally, we have attached a PDF version of our usability test. The PDF version has some formatting that may make the usability test easier to complete.

Thanks for all your help!

Usability Test for Engineering Equation Solver (EES) Introduction

Thank you for your participation in Engineering made EESy’s usability test. Your feedback is very important to us and will help us make the best possible instructions for using EES. Please answer the following questions as you follow along with the instructions. In addition to the given questions, any additional comments you may have are appreciated. Please note that these instructions assume a basic knowledge of computer operations and of basic mathematics.

The illustrated instructions are located here: http://www.digitalparlor.org/sp08/mckelvey3/node/1358. You will need a working copy of EES: Academic Commercial to use these instructions. EES can be downloaded following the steps in the set of instructions.

Locating the EES program

Were you able to successfully download, access, and open EES? If not, why?

Getting Started in EES

Were you able to follow along in the explanation of the Equation Window? If not, which parts were confusing?

Do you understand the sections and purpose of the programs presented? If not, how could this be clearer?

Were you able to successfully change the units of your variables? Did you understand the purpose of adding units to variables?

Were you able to successfully move between the Equations Window, Solutions Window, and Formatted Equations Window? Do you understand the purpose of each? If not, which instruction was confusing?

Solving Systems of Equations in EES

Were you able to successfully program in EES? Did you understand the language required?

Were you able to solve a system of equations in EES? If not, what went wrong?

Printing and Saving in EES

Were you able to successfully save your programs written in EES? Could you reopen them or does this need to be explained?

Were you able to successfully print in EES? Do you understand the different printing options?

Overall

Did you understand the language used in these instructions? Was anything too “technical”?

Again, thank you for all your help! Any questions or additional comments can be sent to erin@purdue.edu or graytr@purdue.edu or posted to our ENGL 421Y blogs.