Product testing — What to ask the user?
Have you ever tried to perform a product test but didn’t know what to ask? The below questions get you covered!
The point is, you don’t want to sit with a stranger in an empty room and be like “please, go through and tell me what to fix”. No, no… there is a psychology behind that, and asking wrong questions can jeopardise the whole idea of receiving useful feedback.
Moderator script:
Introduce yourself. Make a connection. Tell a user your name, your position and company you are working in if the testing is done outside of the office building. Also, remind them why they are here. Check this following script for example:
- Hi, I am Justyna, a web designer with CompanyName. We are working on a website for ProjectName. As a part of this process, we invite real users to see if we are getting things right. There are a few things in mind that will help the test run smoother…
note: If you have a fancy title — consider using short work description of it instead. Nowadays everyone knows roles related to the web design (hopefully) but perhaps you want to use this script for something else — not design related.
- First, please be aware that we are not testing you, we are testing our designs. There are no right or wrong answers and if there are problems, it’s not your fault, it’s a problem with our designs. The more problems we find, the better we can fix them.
note: It is extremely important to make the user comfortable as much as you can. No one like to be tested and observed. Although I am a designer myself, I get extremely anxious when people are looking at my screen and analyse everything. Please put yourself in the shoes of the person next to you!
- Second, please be as candid as possible. If you don’t like something or think it’s just plain silly, please say so! You won’t hurt my feelings — I haven’t been involved in the design of these screens.
note: Even if you have been involved in the design say that you didn’t. People will get more open and honest if the involved person isn’t present.
- Third, please think aloud as you navigate the site [and please navigate bit slower than you usually would]. Tell us what you are trying to do, what you are looking for, what you expect to happen when you click link etc. And if you get stuck, please tell me that too. It helps us understand what is going through your mind and allows us to take good notes. [I will demonstrate “thinking aloud” to you as I am turning my phone to…]
- Fourth, in order to keep the test as realistic as possible, I won’t be able to help you or answer any of your questions. But please ask them anyway, as it is important that we hear your thoughts and comments.
- Finally, this is not a real website. It is a mockup, so some of the links and buttons may not work. Please bear with us.
- Do you have any questions before we begin?
For you, as a moderator, it is important to have a plan, for example, what you want the user to do? You can find an example structure below. Feel free to use and modify it!
Quick introductory questions:
-Age Range
- Gender
- Are you familiar with our company/product?
- Have you ever used a similar product?
Test structure:
- visit website X
- visit website Y
- visit website Z
Task (on each website):
- Buy a product and proceed to payment.
Closing questions:
- Why did you choose the product you chose?
- Which part of the website would you say was the hardest to use? Why?
- And the easiest? Why?
- Which website(s) did you like the most? Why?
- Which website(s) did you hate/dislike? Why?
That is all! In the future, I plan to write an article about how to create personas, which I will link here. Have eyes open!
