View the decks: Habaneros • Jalapeños

Tips for testing

1. Intoduce your test subject to what they should expect:

   • Keep your user comfortable: “Thanks for being a part of my usability test! One thing you should remember is that this might not work the way you expect because it is a prototype, which baiscally means we are testing the app and not you!”
   • If your app puts a user in the middle of a flow give a scenario: “Imagine you are opening an email app that you have used 100 times before…” OR “Imagine you are using a to-do list app that you downloaded recently and are about to…”
   • Remind users to think aloud at the beginning of the test: “As you click through the app, talk out loud about what you are thinking and what you expect to see when you tap on something, if something happens that you didnt expect, go ahead and tell me” Also be sure to remind users throughout the test if they get quiet: “What is going on in this screen?” OR “What did you expect just then?”

2. After your introduction give the user a specific task. If they need reminding, repeat the task verbatim. Remember you want to take as much variability out of the equation as possible.

3. The user is done when they think they are done. It is a finding if the user cant tell they have finished the task. So if they say “Is that it?” you should say either “You tell me” OR “What do you think?” If it comes to this point thank them and move on to the next test.

Additional Resources

Books

• Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems by Steve Krug (See Downloads)

Articles

• Topic: Heuristic Evaluation by Nielsen Norman Group
• Heuristic Evaluation - A System Checklist by Deniese Pierotti
• Usability 101: Introduction to Usability by Jakob Nielsen
• Usability Testing: Getting Design Teams Onboard by Christine Perfetti
• Principles of User Interface Design by Joshua Porter
• Shneiderman’s “Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design”
• Improving Your Website Usability Tests by Damian Rees

Videos

• Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug: Usability Demo
• Usability lesson by Sash Catanzarite

Key Terms & Concepts

Heuristic

An experience-based rule to speed up problem solving, learning, or discovery.

Heuristic Evaluation

An evaluation of a product based on a set of heuristics.

Hallway Testing

Super-casual usability testing, typically performed with colleagues and in the hallway.

Think Aloud Protocol

The simple technique of encouraging test participants to think out loud when using a product.

Usability Testing

Casual usability testing performed with TK

Formal Testing

TK

Remote Testing

TK

Guerilla Testing

TK

Lean UX

TK