The Art of Asking Questions in Usability Testing | Akendi UX Blog
The first post in this series talked about the fundamentals of asking questions in UX research.
This article describes how we ask questions during the most common Usability Testing studies. I will briefly touch on some generalities of usability testing. For a deeper understanding of usability testing, please check the resources listed at the end of this article.
Usability Testing
With concise and standard words, usability testing is a research activity where a product is used by specific users to perform specific tasks in a specific context of use. The goal is to determine the parts of the product that work and those who don’t, by assessing the users’ effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction as they experience the product.
When and What to Ask
Usability Testing sessions usually follow a similar structure offering multiple opportunities for questions. With very rare exceptions, usability testing focuses on the experience of one single user at a time.
When and what questions are asked depends highly on the type of test conducted; i.e. moderated vs unmoderated, and formative (early in the process) vs summative (at the end). For all these types of usability testing, the following are the usual phases in a session and the types of questions used
