Design Critiques: Encourage a Positive Culture to Improve Products

Usability Testing: Best Practices 

Meaghan Hudak | Reading time: about 3 mins

Earlier this year, I participated in my first Usability Study. 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 Study.
Let’s start with, what is a Usability Study?
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.
Perform the Usability Study
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
efficiently? If not, what stopped them? What were their key behaviors 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:
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.