How I handle usability testing - a summary

y favorite kind of usability test is based around creating a scenario for users to be presented with that typically involves a serious of tasks. Testers need to have keen observational skills and gentle prompting to the user in order to discover the user's inner dialogue as they work through the scenario. These are less guided, and help you unearth problems you might not have  previously thought on your own.

Often, stakeholders will have specific questions or want more guided sessions. I tend to label these as more “Feedback session” than a true test, however they can still provide useful insight into the project you are working on.

Before Usability Testing begins, I like to create a set of usability goals for the project which I use as measurements of success after the sessions conclude. For example, a usability goal might be “Users easily understand iconography” or “Users are able to find and correct errors on their form”. Then, during a usability test, we will observe their behavior to assess whether or not this goal has been met by a majority of our users..

After usability testing wraps up, I analyze the results and prepare a summarized report for stakeholders to review that compare our findings against the original usability goals set forth. This gives a decent overall view of a usability “grade” for the project and provides a path forward if changes need to be made

Usability testing can be a drain on your resources if only your UX designers are running sessions. I believe that usability testing can be run by anyone with the right mindset,  and training people to run usability testing sessions is not too hard a task. If you need additional support in your testing efforts, I encourage you to consider expanding your testing team. Despite what some may thing, we can't do everything on our own :) To learn more about how I trained coworkers to conduct usability testing, check out this blog post.

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