What is Usability Testing?
Usability Testing is a very popular and efficient method to evaluate your web site or other interactive product. In contrast to what the label suggests, Usability Testing is looking at all aspects of the user experience. Besides revealing problems in the user experience, a test will also gather insights about how to fix those problems.
Why work with User Intelligence?
- Extensive experience from testing thousands of participants with diverse products and services
- State of the art test facilities
- We bring our design experience to the research projects, so we understand the needs of the design team (e.g. practical recommendations instead of a lengthy paper report) and the limitations of the project itself (e.g. deadlines, prototypes, budget)
- We specialize in global user research and are member of the UXalliance
How does Usability Testing work?
Usability Testing involves the observation of test participants while they perform tasks with an interactive product. The sessions are conducted individually (in contrast to Focus Groups) in a controlled environment. Even though this definition might sound very straightforward, there is a large variety of test setups possible. For each test, we therefore have to take the following points into consideration:
- Product: ranging from digital products to physical products, and from early prototypes to finished versions
- Participants: determine the target audience of the product; select the participants that should be recruited (e.g. recruitment profile); incentives; number of participants
- Tasks: the selection of realistic tasks is important and should also take the context of the product into consideration (e.g. how is the web site found, out-of-box experience of a mobile device); other user research methods can be used here to determine these tasks (e.g. Web Analytics, Online Survey, Interviews)
- Timing: test early in the development process (e.g. changes in a prototype are inexpensive compared to changing code) and test often (e.g. test of concept and beta-version: two small tests instead of one large one, iterative design)
- Location: testing in the local market vs. testing in one or more foreign countries (see UXalliance for global testing); moderator and participants in one location vs. remote usability testing; observation is done on location (e.g. observation room or elsewhere using remote observation
- Environment: usability lab that simulates the participants’ environment, testing at workplace of B2B participants, or testing B2C participants ‘on the street’
- Operational details: test goals, pre- and post-test interview, session length (ranging from 10 minutes to 2 hours), need for a separate observer (besides the moderator), parallel or sequential sessions, think-out-loud protocol vs. retrospective sessions, templates for analysis, deliverables, etc.
These points are addressed together with the client and written down in a test plan.
What are the deliverables?
The deliverables depend on the needs of the client, but range from a short email with the top level findings to a full report addressing all issues found including estimation of severity and possible solutions. A report is usually presented during a workshop with the client.
In addition to the test reports, we can provide the following:
- Digital recordings of full participants sessions (DVD or online)
- Highlights video of participant sessions quotes
- Statistical support for the findings (e.g. Web Analytics, Online Surveys)
- Mock-ups or wireframes of possible solutions to the issues found
- Impact Analysis (impact on user experience + impact on organization (technology, content, etc) on the proposed changes
Example cases:
- Extend the shopping experience: RFID tags and mobile phones (test in a retail shop)
- Search engine interface (usability test on location)
Questions?
If you have any questions or want more information about Usability Testing, please contact us!
