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Usability Testing: Best Practices Meaghan Hudak | Reading time: about 3 minsEarlier this year, I participated in my first Usability StudyTest. From the experience, I’ve gained some helpful insights and learnings. You may be wondering where to start or how to conduct a virtual Usability StudyTest.
Let’s start with, what is a Usability StudyTesting? Usability Testing is a testing method for measuring how well and user-friendly an application or product is.
A small, targeted set of end-users will test the application or product to discover any usability errors. Usability testing typically focuses on how easy it is to use, flexibility, and the application or products ability to fulfill its purpose. This level of testing is often performed on the current version of the product, or at the beginning of the software development life cycle. A group of users will review the application to be developed in accordance with what the users want from it. From there, suggestions and improvements can be considered. To kick things off, I’ve included five points to consider during the Usability Testing process: What is your goal?
What is the question you’re trying to answer with your test? Is there a design issue on a website that is hindering users from Is there a new product you want to test out? Based on your goal, pick 2 or 3 specific tasks to give the test participant. We’ll learn much more if we watch them try to accomplish something. Participant Recruitment
Recruiting test participants may seem daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. For
starters, we only need 5 people. Jakob Nielsen explains The Magical Number of 5. Getting more participants isn’t worth it because there are diminishing returns on
the data. Focus on finding representative people. This means people who look like
our users and would have a reason to do the tasks we’re testing. How do you find
the right people? The first place to look is your user base. It’s an instant pool of
potential participants who care about your product. Once you’ve found participants,
explain what the test is about and how long it will take. Prep for the Usability Study
Detail what steps you want the user to take to uncover accessibility issues or challenges. You’re going to want to write a script. This ensures we’re giving the right information and eliminates the chances of inconsistencies between tests. You’ll want to record the test so you can focus on what’s happening and avoid having to take notes under pressure.
Welcome the participant and explain to them how the test will work. You want to take some of the pressure off. Explain you are not testing them; you’re testing the site. If they make mistakes, it’s not their fault and the test is not punitive; we’re here to learn from their experience. Ask them to try to think out loud as they Usability Testing Best Practices perform each task. Explain that to ensure conditions are as real as possible, you won’t be able to offer them any advice or guidance. Explain the real-life scenario that would lead to them performing this task so they can get in the right mindset. Let them read the task out loud and begin. It’s important to remain neutral and silent as the participant takes the test. This is not about teaching them how to use the interface. You’re there to listen and watch. Users may be critical or run into problems but resist the urge to explain things or prompt them. If they ask you how to do something, reply with “What do you think?” or “I am interested in what you would do.” After each test, take a step back with the participant and ask, “How’d that go?” If you have specific questions, you can retrace their steps and ask them open ended questions like, “Why did you decide to do that there?” or “What was going through your mind at this point?”
Data Analysis Review the recording. Did the participant complete the task successfully and and efficiently? If not, what stopped them? What were their key behaviors and and comments? Cross reference and look for patterns between the different participants.
Rank the issues, identify solutions, and determine the best course of action moving forward. The Human-Centered Design data synthesis methodology
explained: Externalize Synthesis Process
- Externalize the data and organize it by creating an Affinity Diagram (MURAL was utilized in this case).
- Draw connections between the groupings to develop deeper insights and identify common themes.
- Distill the themes, generating insight statements to summarize key learnings or findings. Quantitative vs. Qualitative
- Quantitative data reflect whether the tasks were easy to perform
- Qualitative data consist of observational findings that identify design features that were easy or hard to use Task Efficiency
- Measure the average (mean) time taken to complete each task. Some users may simply take longer to carry out tasks, possibly skewing the results by making the average time to complete tasks higher. To account for this, mean totals should also be calculated. 101/)
By following these best practices, you will be able to implement the changes to
better serve your customer and users.
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MEAGHAN HUDAK Meaghan is an Associate Product/Program Analyst supporting the CCSQ Human-Centered Design Center of Excellence (HCD CoE). Meaghan combines her communications skills and growing knowledge of HCD to help the team promote the usage of HCD best practices throughout the CCSQ community. Meaghan has been with the HCD CoE since January 2022.
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