experiential-eval

To document a software tool's usability, you perform actual end-to-end tasks with the tool and capture qualitative firsthand experience regarding friction and practical effectiveness, outputting an investigation report.

Firsthand experiential evaluation is a process of testing software workflows by performing real tasks yourself to gather qualitative data on usability, rather than relying on theoretical analysis or templated checklists.

Yes, you can evaluate practical effectiveness by performing actual usage with tangible outcomes and documenting your qualitative experience, which strictly prohibits mere reading or using templated checklists.

You report qualitative insights on tool-testing friction by performing hands-on tasks yourself and writing an investigation document that captures your impressions, usefulness, and surprises encountered during the session.

Yes, evaluating automation tools requires actual usage where you perform a small end-to-end task yourself to document what works and what doesn't, rather than relying on theoretical analysis.

Experiential investigation documents are stored as markdown files at .kb/investigations/{date}-eval-{slug}.md, containing the qualitative reporting from your firsthand tool-testing session.