Guerrilla Testing

What is Guerrilla Testing?

Guerrilla Testing is for gathering feedback from user groups of 6–12 persons for UI/UX design of the product. It is an easy and fast way to test your product, you just need a group of people and their observations to improve efficiency of the user interface. You do not even provide accommodation or pay tickets! Users can test your product from everywhere: from their homes, cafes or any other public space.

Characteristics of Guerrilla Testing

PARTICIPANTS

Participants are not recruited instead public members are approached by conductors.

SESSIONS

Sessions are short, generally around 10–15 minutes.

OUTPUT

Output is qualitative rather than quantitative.

Why Guerrilla Testing?

It is a great way of getting quick baseline for measuring user experience and possible usability issues that might happen in the future.

Guerrilla Testing is:

• Fast
• Cheap
• Requires low set of skills
• Hassle-free

Why Not Guerrilla Testing?

If you need a specific environment or users with specific skill-set then Guerrilla Testing may not be the best fit for you.

In these situations, you can consider test automation tools like Testinium rather than usability tests.

When to Use Guerrilla Testing?

To begin with, Guerrilla Testing is a good fit to see which parts of the product does UI/UX support and users ability to complete a journey of the design. It would not be a good fit for end-to-end processes that require a good amount of time.

Getting Started for Guerrilla Testing

1. Think about what to test and define a scope of user search
2. Identify a list of tasks for participants
3. Turn these task into scenarios and make them understandable to participants
4. Start the test
5. Conduct your test and gather observations
6. Fix usability problems
7. Test again
8. Identify usage patterns
9. Share it with your team!

Finding Right Participants

Since Guerrilla Testing does not require recruited participants, all you need to do is go outside and find volunteers from your friends, family or strangers in the public spaces like cafes where people are always in a good mood. Ask them if they can spare a few minutes of their times. Be sure to ask people with different ages, cultures, genders etc. for diversity. Once they agree to participate:

• Explain the test
• Start the test
• Observe their reactions
• Try not to talk unless it is necessary
• Ask them about the test, where they find it challenging etc.

Conclusion

Usability test are crucial for web sites and applications. Guerrilla Testing is a fast and easy way for an effective feedback from users.