Never Show A Design You Haven’t Tested On Users
http://alistapart.com/article/never-show-a-design-you-havent-tested-on-users
User Testing gives focus to stakeholder feedback
- By testing and explaining the problems found from user testing, stakeholders can be included in suggesting solutions, rather than spending time hypothesizing about what might be problems.
- Tip: Present results of user testing first, then a detailed walkthrough of the design
Making room for user testing
- Don’t make it optional
- Describe the objective, not the procedure
- Scale down documention — not the testing
- Scale down the prototype — not the testing
Low cost, low-effort techniques for user testing
- Pluralistic walkthrough: asking experts (or colleagues) to critique sketches or screenshots => able to find out biggest issues in the design
- Hit the streets: works well if you have something specific to test
- Online testing tools: Treejack, Chalkmark
- Using existing audience for experiments (eg. using HotJar and Google Analytics)
- Did you get it done? Was this useful?: questions to ask users using tools like Google Tag Manager
- Set up a usability lab and have a weekly drop-in test day
Testing is Designing
- Make sure some sort of user testing is part of the project plan
