This article is excellently researched about the seven dos and don’ts about usability testing (see for at userfeel.com). The great content written here will help you to know which are the key things that you are supposed to do and the ones that you are not supposed to do.
- Listen to your people: Paying attention to the response gathered from the audience is very important. This will help you to know the strengths and weaknesses of your product. Any information from the audience should be studied closely, listened, analyzed, and highly considered before it is implemented.
- Don’t treat your people as monolithic body: Whether you are taking opinions, comments, or compliments about your product, take each differently and then scientifically synthesize the results. You should comprehend that each has his or her own goal for your product. You should always seek to know the user intent and the kind of solutions they are looking for.
- Don’t undermine or underestimate that small sample sizes are insignificant: Big sample sizes can be expensive and can take more time to analyze the results. Small sample sizes are more practical compared to big sample sizes.
- You should consider doing usability testing as highly effective: In essence, usability testing is a type of user research and is a section of a bigger design process. Each test should address a particular issue. When doing usability testing, you should do the following:
- Identify your aim early and clearly
- Plan usability testing process ahead of time and avoid procrastinating. Come up with few milestones for your usability testing work.
- Select usability testing methods that correlate with the plan and your goals.
- Use different kinds of usability testing tools and methods if required when appropriate: Coming up with a specific usability testing method can be a bit challenging. How do you come up with the best usability testing method that suits your product? Each usability testing method has its pros and cons. Donald Norman and Jacob Nielsen have come up with basic rules of usability testing. These are:
- Look out to what individuals are doing
- Don’t uphold what people say they do
- Don’t consider what other individuals predict
Below are some of the tools and methods you should consider:
- Un-moderated versus moderated usability testing: Un-moderated usability testing involves users completing usability testing by themselves. Moderated usability testing entails having moderated sessions facilitated by a professional. (Trmadol)
- Diagnostic tools: Card sorting and eye tracking can be highly dependable in following what the audience do as can session surveys, replay, funnels, and heatmaps.
- Usability benchmarking: Greatly written usability testing surveys are done by numerous participants using predetermined and precise methods of performance.
- Never use a scope that is too broad or too vague: The primary goal of usability testing is to collect accurate results. Your usability should target specific individuals, groups, or people.
- You should not use test data in a vacuum: You should have a thorough analysis of data feedback and come up with a reliable solution for your product.
