Tips for user testing like a pro

Define your segment

Demographics that make up your targeted customer.

Classic demographics
Gender
Age range
Location
Education
Job
Tech level
Platform/Device
Local/In person

Recruiting

Number of participants
8: optimal
4: good enough
1: better than nothing

Be vague about your product. Your goal is to see the first time experience. Don’t mention your company name — you don’t want them looking at your app/site in advance.

Where to find participants

Friends and family are great, reliable, but they may be worried about your feelings.
Craigslist… yuk. A lot of professional test takers. A few diamonds, a lot of duds.
Taskrabbit has high quality, reliable participants. But tough to define segment and many pro test takers.
Cafe’s require you to have guts. Pay for people’s coffee. Short session.
Professional recruiters/panels ideal, but expensive.
Facebook targeted ads. I haven’t tried this yet.
Meetups — find a meetup for your target audience and go.

Avoid
Pro-usability takers
UX people
Tech people
People who can’t focus (phone screen)

Script

Think about what you want to test in terms of tasks, not features. What do the users want to accomplish on your app/site?

Lets pretend you were on a site looking at information on your team and saw an ad which stated: Golden State Warriors’ news and podcasts updated hourly. You clicked on the ad and landed here. Explore this page and site.

You and your friend James manage a fantasy basketball team together. How would you use Speedette to share fantasy news and information?

Create a story for context and to help with the artificial motivation.

Session

Your main job during the session is to make them feel as comfortable as possible so they can act as naturally as possible in a very unnatural situation. Make sure they feel in control.

Not more than yourself and 2 other viewers max.

Listen! You are not going to be there to guide them in their home or office. So, sit back and let them do the talking.

Stay neutral. Use phrases like, “Tell me about that.” “What do you mean?” “Please explain that further.”

Time your session. Try not to go beyond 1 hour for consumer session. People will lose interest.

If you need an app install, have a backup phone or computer.

Ask them to think aloud.

Actions speak louder than words. Watch what they do, watch their body language.

Post Session

Start broad, then go specific.

Get real. Engage the participant in frank discussion at the end.