How to Run Live User Testing Sessions
The 3-part series on getting high quality, actionable feedback
Brenden Mulligan is a co-founder and designer at Cluster, which builds web and mobile apps that enable users to create private sharing environments for groups, travelers, classrooms, and more. Brenden previously created and sold ArtistData and Onesheet.
At Cluster, we’re big fans of iteration and experimentation. Since we launched publicly in February 2013, we have rapidly iterated the product on both iOS and Android. In the first 8 weeks of being live in the Apple App Store, we launched 10 updates. On Android, there was a week that we pushed out 5 releases in 5 days while we did some heavy A/B testing.
While rapid iteration is wonderful, at times we also slow down and make more deliberate decisions about larger changes. When this happens, we run user testing sessions, where we recruit and bring in potential users to walk through the app and give us feedback.
Earlier this year, we were working on a big update. We decided to use this opportunity to bring in users and ask a bunch of questions about various prototypes. When talking about the process with fellow entrepreneurs, they asked us for details. So we wrote a 3-part series about it.
Six months later, I’m still constantly asked to share this info. It’s always been three separate posts, so I wanted to create one link I could share that would link to the other three.
We really hope you find this series useful!
Setup: Setting the stage for a successful test
This post includes deciding on a specific thing to test, deciding when and where to do the user study, deciding what type of users to study, recruiting participants with Craigslist, trimming the candidates list, prioritizing and scheduling candidates, and getting the right equipment.
Running the Tests: Capturing participants using your app
This post includes arranging the room, meeting the participant, introducing the study, not revealing the answers, simulating app discovery and installation, walking the user through the prototype, and wrapping up.
The Debrief: Turning user feedback into actionable insights
This post shows you how to take all that amazing feedback you gathered using post 1 and 2 and parse it into useful, actionable intelligence.
Thanks for reading this! If you got value out of this article, I would really appreciate you hitting the recommend button below. Connect with me on Twitter @mulligan with any comments / thoughts.
