Some of the Business Technology Management (BTM) students took advantage of the anticipated traffic at the Exchange District Campus (EDC) Career Fair to conduct a five-second usability test. The students were asked to intercept participants that fell into the target market and ask them to look at their client’s landing page and images for five seconds to then answer some qualitative questions.

The students tested 20 “users” and provided a Tim Hortons gift card as compensation for the participant’s time.

The five-second test is a powerful usability testing tool designed to capture a user’s first impression of a webpage. The test length is purposely chosen as studies have shown that five seconds is enough time for users to formulate an immediate qualitative impression of the webpage without having enough time to begin to focus on specific design elements.