Usability Testing is Super Important and Easier than You Think - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Usability Testing is Super Important and Easier than You Think Victoria Merriman Creative Director Digital Loom victoria@digital-loom.com Show of hands Who here manages or works on a website? (Many hands go up.) Who here has
Usability Testing is Super Important and Easier than You Think
Victoria Merriman Creative Director Digital Loom victoria@digital-loom.com
Who here manages or works on a website? (Many hands go up.) Who here has a usability expert on their team? (Many hands go down.) That means that a lot of websites are getting built and launched without necessarily being tested for usability.
Usability testing is easier than you think.
The good news is that usability testing is easier than you think. In fact, it’s so easy that we are all going to do it today. In this session.
Why is usability testing a good idea?
R E A S O N # 1
Doane University hired us to conduct in-depth user research and usability testing on their
significant gains between June 2016 (before the improvements) and June 2017 (after the improvements).
O V E R A L L U N I Q U E V I S I T O R S
V I S I T
A P P L Y
T R A N S F E R
D E P O S I T
O V E R A L L T R A F F I C T O G R A D U AT E & A D U L T L E A R N E R S E C T I O N
C A M P A I G N S P E N D I N G
R E A S O N # 2
Usability testers often turn up technical issues that we and our clients missed. We’re all too close to the site, whereas usability testers provide a fresh perspective.
R E A S O N # 3
With our higher ed and large non-profit clients, there are always a lot of people weighing in with different opinions. Usability testing gives you actual data about what works and what doesn’t.
R E A S O N # 4
A U S A B I L I T Y T E S T E R
I really appreciate the simplified menu and clean design. I have an aversion to clutter—it makes me move through a site faster because I can’t wait to leave.”
After our testers complete the tasks, we usually ask for their general feedback on the
Which would you rather have—a user rushing through your site because they can’t wait to leave, or hanging out and exploring? I thought so.
2 3 4 Write tasks. 1 Get testers. Watch testers perform the tasks. Learn from their struggles.
I say learn from their struggles, but we’re also going to learn a lot from where things go
Write tasks. 1
You are an X in situation Y. You want to do Z.”
This is a good format to follow when writing tasks. It helps you understand the user’s background, their motivations for coming to the site, and what they’re trying to accomplish.
Write tasks. 1 Keep tasks short. Don’t use the exact words that are used on the site. Make users dig a little bit. Map tasks to important objectives. Shoot for around 8–12 tasks per 45-min session.
A few tips…
Let’s try it!
Take 3 minutes now to write at least one usability task for a website that you designed, built, or manage. At the end of the 3 minutes, I ask a few volunteers to share what they wrote.
Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
Social media networks. Craigslist ads. Current customers, members, clients, etc. Services such as UserTesting.com Offer an incentive! 2 Get testers. Can be in-person or remote using web conference.
How many testers should you get?
O R 2 Get testers.
I have heard everything from “5 is all you need to find the majority of issues” to “the more the better.” In my experience, the magic number is between 8–10. That’s where you really start seeing patterns. BUT the most important thing is to get more than zero testers. Even if you just watch your uncle or grandma use the site that will be better than watching nobody use it.
Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
Let’s try it!
Let’s get a fearless volunteer try out a usability test from one of our sites. [At this point I call a volunteer from the audience to be a tester so that the audience can see how it works.]
3 Watch testers perform the tasks.
Thank them! Explain the process. Tell them to try their best, but that it’s
Explain that you’re testing the site, not them. Ask them to “think out loud.” OK to record? B E F O R E T E S T I N G
You are a PhD student in the Economics
requirements for your dissertation and how it will be evaluated.
Y O U R M I S S I O N
[This is the usability task the volunteer is trying out.]
Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
OK, so the volunteer struggled a little bit on that one. Let’s see what we can learn.
T I M E O N TA S K
U S E R R AT I N G
C O M P L E T I O N O R 1
4 Learn from their struggles.
For each task, we collect completion, time on task, and user rating.
they got the right information, but didn’t, so score that a 0. Time on task is the amount of time that they spent before either getting to the right information or giving up. User rating is a subjective sense of how easy or hard the task was. 0 is super difficult or impossible, 10 is really easy and painless.
4 Learn from their struggles.
What did you notice? How can the task be improved?
In addition to the metrics, you can also capture some qualitative information. What did you notice as you watched the person perform the task? What did they say? Where did they get stuck? How do you or they think the task can be improved?
4 Learn from their struggles.
Ask for general feedback or any other thoughts. Thank them again!
A F T E R T E S T I N G
[Thank the volunteer and have them sit down.]
Let’s try it!
Take 10 minutes now to pair up with your neighbor. Have them try out the task you wrote earlier on whatever device they have handy. Record completion, time on task, and user
Any thoughts, observations, or questions to share? Who here just learned something about their site?
Email me: victoria@digital-loom.com Sample recruiting message Script for testing sessions Results spreadsheet
I’m happy to share a few templates with you that we touched on if you’re interested in doing your own usability testing.