Notes on usability testing

Following today's discussion about usability tests for assignment 3, I wanted to add my own two cents about this activity for those of you who are new to it. Usability tests are an important tool in the designers tool box, but can be fairly daunting (even for us graduate students). My aim is to give you some guidance from my own experience. This won't be a holistic checklist for you to follow step by step, but hopefully aid in making this task more manageable. 

There are a few stages of usability tests denoted by increasing levels of fidelity of your prototype. Everything from raw ideas to paper sketches to a working prototype can be tested yielding different degrees of feedback at each stage.

Actually, you have probably done some usability testing yourself, but may have not realized it. For instance, at some point you've had a crazy idea for an awesome thing or activity and ran it past your friends to see if what they thought. In the rawest form, this was a usability test. 

Usability testing in the work world is similar or, at least, should feel the same. This activity should feel like a guided conversation about the design you are testing. Establishing some common ground (which you do in everyday conversation) goes a long way in getting your participant to engage with your test. It is fairly easy to do that with this assignment since almost everyone has used YouTube or may even be an addict.

Setting up

Expectation setting is important here. Let your participants know ahead of time what will happen during the session. Give them a very high level framework of what you will be doing (they aren't interested in the nitty gritty details). Also, it is important at this point to remind the participant that you are testing the design and not them. This reinforces this idea and provides a lead into explaining the design itself. You'll be presenting a sketch, so the fidelity might confuse your participant. You can briefly explain the point of sketches and how they are effective in gaining meaningful feedback efficiently. This can keep the conversation flowing and prevent it from feeling robotic.

Make sure to tell your participant to speak out loud. That is something important that is often forgot by both researcher and participant. This is in addition to the rest of the procedure we talked about in class.

During the test

Be sure to stick to your script. If your subject says something interesting you may ask a follow up question to clarify, but remember to stay focused. 

Know your prototype. If you have multiple sketches, be sure to know exactly what order they need to be presented in and have any additional sketches at the ready.

After the test

Again, your participant should be speaking aloud, but you should ask if there are any other thoughts they might have had during the test.

At this point you can conclude and speak freely with the participant. Be sure to thank them for their time.

Immediately after parting ways with your participant, talk with your partner about the results of the test. This discussion will help you to remember the test and may provide additional insight into any existing issue.

Fin

If you think user testing is totally groovy you can check out Paul Krug's Rocket Surgery Made Easy. It provides a more complete view of usability testing with bigger words and pretty pictures. It's the book we use in the HCI program to learn usability testing. It is available on Amazon. I can bring it in if you want a peek before you buy.

As always, feel free to ask questions. 

Happy testing!

J-