Who the timing represented

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

The organisers timed six members of staff using the new sign-in tablet at the community workshop. Each person completed the process in less than twenty seconds, so the entrance team expected visitors to move through quickly. On the first open day, a queue formed. New visitors paused over unfamiliar membership categories and searched for instructions that the staff had no need to read.

The original timings were genuine: the staff really had completed the task that quickly. The problem was that they already knew the workshop’s system and vocabulary. We later observed people who had never visited before and used their questions to revise the screen. Measuring the intended users gave us a less impressive time but a more useful test.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

Two instructors erected the camping shelter in seven minutes during the equipment check. Their result persuaded us that pupils could put it up during the afternoon expedition without delaying the other activities. The pupils, opening the bag for the first time, spent seven minutes merely identifying which poles belonged together.

Nothing had been wrong with the stopwatch or the instructors’ demonstration. They had repeated the task many times and worked without discussing the instructions. Before the next expedition, we timed teams of beginners and allowed them to practise. The revised estimate reflected the people who would actually be assembling the shelter, rather than the people most familiar with it.

Both texts describe the limitations of the measurements.

What similarities do the limitations of the measurements share in these extracts? Use evidence from both texts to support your answer.