“Who Cares What People Think?”—The Key to Improving Your Design Testing Process
There are imperfections in the testing process, particularly with the people you’re testing with. I’ve noticed how people lack the rationale for why something should be done differently. And this is where we come in as UX and visual designers. We should observe, ask, listen and understand. Combining this with our expertise and experience we’ll be able to design better products.
After my first time conducting a user test, I came to realize something interesting. And it’s the power that lies in testing a product with the people that are going to use it. These tests often result in those ‘aha!’ moments for designers. It’s a win-win situation. You get to hear what they think of your product and what improvements they’d suggest. Plus it can be the right opportunity to pitch your product to a wide variety of people.
I’m sure anyone that has done any kind of tests with people can agree on the benefits of it and why it’s become an indispensable part of the design process. To think that after conducting the tests, spending days in Excel creating tasks for issues highlighted during testing, we end up with a list of recommendations to improve our product. What a nice feeling… sometimes.
But I want to point out something that has crossed my mind during a testing session, and I’m sure it’s crossed your mind too. 😉
Who cares what people think.
We, the designers, are the experts
I know—it’s a crazy statement, because the thing is, of course we care! The issue here lies in something different. In the past, I noticed from my own experience and that of other designers that we sometimes end up caring a bit too much about all the improvements someone mentions. Generally, it’s obvious that something needs fixing, but sometimes it’s a bit more complicated than that. You will always encounter people who would want something entirely different. The trick here is to not simply give in to this.
Paul Boag, a leader in digital strategy and user experience design, sums it up quite beautifully:
“Users are not always logical, at least not on the surface. To be a great designer you need to look a little deeper into how people think and act.”
Building on that, we must first come to understand why something is being mentioned. You can’t always rely entirely on their “it should be this way because…” answer. I’m sure you’ve noticed through your own testing how difficult it is for people to come up with the right words to explain why something is wrong, let alone trying to suggest a better solution.
This is where we, the designers, come in. We’re the experts at this. Our job is to be on top of the latest trends and best practices. With this expertise, we should be able to understand what people are trying to say when pointing out an error. We must understand why it’s being said and find the best way to design this. And I want to take you on this thought process.
Defining the different types of testing
Looking at the term ‘user testing’, it essentially implies that we’re going to test the users. And one of the primary rules during testing is that we have to make clear we’re not testing the person’s intelligence. We’re simply testing the product, design, or service.
The time has come for us to define the type of tests we’re doing. Since there can be numerous types of tests, I’m only going to define two types of tests that I’ve been doing for some years now working as a UX designer: usability and product testing.
Both have similar characteristics and they definitely overlap in certain areas. Although there is a key difference. And knowing which one to apply for a project depends entirely on what you wish to find out. So let’s start by defining these.
Usability Testing: How to Improve Your Product
The name of this type of test says it all. With such a test you’ll be looking at how to improve a prototype or fully fleshed product. It’s the perfect testing to use in the beginning when you only have wireframes. Alternatively, slide it in at the end when you have a fully designed product.
The benefits of a usability test are to:
- Identify the pain points in the experience
- Explore how people are using your product
- Understand which features users can’t live without, versus which ones can be stripped away
The result of this is an evaluation of your designs and features to help you iron out the kinks of your product.
Want to go a step further and do something that’s methodical? Gather all the feedback and base it against the 10 heuristics put together by the godfather of UX, Jakob Nielsen. Doing this will ensure that the feedback is structured and categorized. This will also make it easier to present the feedback to the team or client.
Product Testing: Place Yourself in Users’ Shoes
Product testing, on the other hand, goes deeper than identifying pain points or fixes. Just like a usability test, it can be dropped at any point of the design process, but this test comes in at a different angle. It will allow the interviews to go deeper, with the aim to help you understand their needs, motivations, and behaviours.
Empathy is Key Here
It will also allow you to do something marvellous. And that is to empathize with them on a deeper level. The CEO of IDEO, Tim Brown, says it better:
“Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”
Although here he is emphasizing at the heart of design as a whole, it is surely applicable to a test with people. It will allow you to place yourself in their shoes, and thus help you design a product that is truly desired.
Example From 10Clouds: It’s All About Asking the Right Questions
Here at 10Clouds my talented colleagues designed and developed the product Coinquista for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. It’s a feature-rich product where you can track your investments, keep an eye on trends to know when to invest or cash-out, and learn how top investors are moving around their currencies.
Now if we imagine that we’re going to interview people who have used with Coinquista, the questions we will ask will revolve around understanding their needs, motivations, and behaviours. See below some examples:
- Needs
“Try to remember the last time you were on Coinquista, where you were keeping track of the price of a specific cryptocurrency. How did Coinquista help you get the most out of the investments that day?” - Motivations
“Coinquista helps you invest smarter, buy and sell securely, and learn top peers. Tell me what other benefits you’ve found by using the product.” - Behaviours
“Tell me what went through your thoughts last time when you tried to sell a cryptocurrency of your choice when the market value dropped.”
By asking questions around these themes, you will be able to learn about the people that use your product, how they use your product, and how they feel when doing certain tasks in different scenarios. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to deliver an experience that’s even more meaningful.
Observe, Listen, Ask Questions
Let’s bring up that question I highlighted at the beginning of the article where I stated: “who cares what people think”. What I’m trying to say here is not that we should listen to everything someone wants and add it to the backlog. The purpose of these tests is more about understanding why they need or want something.
Testing is imperfect. It’s hard for people to put into words what the perfect experience should be during a test. The only thing we can do here is to observe, listen, and ask more questions to get as much information as possible. After the interview is when the hard work comes, where we sit down trying to unravel why someone might have suggested a specific improvement. Once you have that defined, you can start translating what they were unable to formulate into a robust solution.
Combine What’s Best In You With People’s Needs
As designers, we’re always looking to design the next breakthrough product. To make this happen, we need to combine the needs and desires of the people that are going to use the products with our expertise, creativity, and intuition. By doing so we’ll be able to design better products and experiences.
And with that last thought, I want to close out with a simple tip that you can introduce in your next usability or product test to get some proper honest answers from people.
What is your take on this topic? Share your thoughts if you also rely on usability and product testing as an add-on to your thinking process or if you actually think it should be different.
Also, be sure to check out all our 10Clouds design articles. And if you enjoyed reading this, how about some claps for appreciation? 👏
