Usability Testing Made Easy

Design by Dariusz Rompa at stock.xchng.

OK, I confess, the title of this post is slightly sneaky. You know why?

Usability testing is easy.

All I am going to do is remind you how easy it is, so you can feel empowered to do it (or have your design team do it).

• Doing a little usability testing is better than not doing any usability testing at all, even if you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. Observing just one person using your software will provide insight into unnecessary clicks, weird navigation, and other annoyances. 
• You don’t need a lot of testers to get good results. In fact, UX guru Jakob Nielsen indicates that you get the best results by using five users or less. After that, it’s just a waste of time and money.
• Usability testing is not something that should happen at the end of a release cycle. Ideally, you should do low-fidelity usability testing before even a line of code is written.
• Usability testing is not just an event. It is an activity that should be an ongoing part of your product design and development process.

Alright, so now that you’re convinced that usability testing won’t destroy your budget or take weeks and weeks, here are some tips on how to pull it all together. These tips will work whether you are doing paper prototyping early in the design phase or usability testing on existing software.

1. Decide on a location for your usability test. This really depends on how many observers you have. I’ve done usability testing in my office before. It works just fine. There are also usability labs you can rent where they have observation rooms so the testers don’t feel like monkeys in the zoo.
2. Find some testers. Depending on the type of product you manage, this could be Bob in the next cubicle, your neighbor, or existing customers. If you need very specific profiles for your testing (e.g. male 45-55, farmer, minimal computer experience) you can leverage a recruiting firm. Regardless, you should pay your testers an honorarium (or at least give them a fruit basket, or something). 
3. Create a usability test plan. This sounds scary, but it really isn’t. Think of some common tasks that your users perform and especially in areas around which you may have concerns. Make sure tasks are independent of each other. I.e., if a user is not able to complete task 4, this has no impact on task 5. 
4. Create the paper prototype. This is obviously not required if you are testing existing software. I won’t get into the details of that here. Read Paper Prototyping by Carolyn Snyder.
5. Define roles. Decide who is going to facilitate the test and who is going to observe and take notes. In order to get the most out of a usability test you need at least two people.
6. Make sure that everything is set up and ready to go. You don’t want to be printing tasks while your tester is waiting in the lobby. Also, I have learned not to use an ergonomic keyboard during tests, because it distracts testers who are used to conventional keyboards. Ideally, you would have both kinds of keyboards available, so users can pick the one they prefer.
7. Introduce the tester to the usability test. Here are some important things to communicate: a) this is not to test the user, but rather the software, b) encourage the user to “think aloud,” so you know what’s going on in the tester’s head as she or he navigates through each task, c) provide some context for the test (e.g. You are a farmer and need to balance your books for the month.).
8. Ask the tester if he or she has any questions and answer these as applicable.
9. Hand the first task to the user. There should be only one task on each paper (put several tasks on one sheet of paper and cut into strips to conserve).
10. Do not help the user with the task or give hints. If the user is struggling to complete a task, make a note of it and suggest to move on to the next task.
11. Take detailed notes throughout. Also, if you have software to record the interaction, this is a great artifact for future reference.
12. After the test, thank the tester and ask them to fill out a brief survey about their experience. You can skip this step if you want, but it usually results in valuable data.
13. Write up your findings and present to the cross-functional product team. Doing usability tests without sharing the findings with the team is pretty much a waste of time.
14. Incorporate the awesome usability feedback you received from your testers into your design and/or product backlog. Your users will love you!
15. Repeat.

NOTE: Software that is not usable does not survive in this day and age. It might solve all sorts of business problems, but if it is difficult to use, it will fail. Today’s users demand an excellent user experience and are extremely impatient (think about yourself!).

Usability testing is no longer an option. It is essential.

Make time for it.