Usability Testing is Super Important and Easier than You Think

You already know that delighted users are a good thing. A user who’s having a great experience on your site will spend more time exploring and engaging with your content, and will leave feeling happy that they accomplished what they wanted. Improving usability strengthens your brand, drives conversions, and can even improve SEO and decrease spending on marketing campaigns. But how do you know for sure if your site is user-friendly?

In this hands-on session, we'll show you how to conduct one-on-one usability tests with minimal equipment, time, and money. (Spoiler alert—you don’t need a fancy lab or eye-tracking software.) We’ll cover how to recruit users, how to design and run tests, how to read tester’s minds, how to collect the data, and what to do with it. You’ll have the chance to try the techniques out yourself during the session, and there will be prizes for our intrepid volunteers.

This session is for designers, developers, site owners, and anybody interested in making the web a better place. No technical experience necessary.

Transcript

1. Usability Testing is 
 Super Important and Easier than You Think Creative Director & Founder, Digital Loom
 victoria@digital-loom.com V I C T O R I A M E R R I M A N
2. About Digital Loom Work exclusively in Drupal. Work primarily for higher ed and non-profit clients. Full-service agency in Cambridge, MA. Founded in 2000.
3. Take great care of people. O U R G O A L S 1
4. Take great care of people. O U R G O A L S Make the web a better place. 2 Make money. 3 1
5. Drupal 4.7 C I R C A 2 0 0 6
7. Wow, this could be really useful to our clients. “
8. Wow, this could be really useful to our clients. “ We can’t give it to them like this. “
9. T E C H N I C A L 
 E V A L U AT O R N O N - T E C H N I C A L E V A L U AT O R S I T E A D M I N I S T R AT O R E N D U S E R C O N T E N T C O N T R I B U T O R S I T E B U I L D E R
10. How can we take great care of these people? How do build excitement about Drupal?
11. What if we watch actual users perform the tasks?
12. What if we watch actual users perform the tasks?
13. Usability testing is easier than you think.
14. How does it work?
15. How does it work? 2 3 4 Write tasks. 1 Get testers. Watch testers perform the tasks. Learn from their struggles.
16. Write tasks. 1 You are an X in situation Y. You want to do Z.” “
17. Write tasks. 1
18. Write tasks. 1 Map tasks to important objectives.
19. Write tasks. 1 Keep tasks short. Map tasks to important objectives.
20. Write tasks. 1 Keep tasks short. Don’t use the exact words that are used on the site. Map tasks to important objectives.
21. Write tasks. 1 Keep tasks short. Don’t use the exact words that are used on the site. Make users dig a little bit. Map tasks to important objectives.
22. Write tasks. 1 Keep tasks short. Don’t use the exact words that are used on the site. Make users dig a little bit. Map tasks to important objectives. Shoot for around 8–12 tasks per 45-min session.
23. Let’s try it!
24. How does it work? Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
25. 2 Get testers.
26. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. 2 Get testers.
27. Social media networks. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. 2 Get testers.
28. Social media networks. Post on job boards. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. 2 Get testers.
29. Social media networks. Post on job boards. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. Services such as UserTesting.com 2 Get testers.
30. Social media networks. Post on job boards. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. Services such as UserTesting.com Offer an incentive! 2 Get testers.
31. Social media networks. Post on job boards. Current customers, members, clients, or colleauges who fit the profile. Services such as UserTesting.com Offer an incentive! 2 Get testers. Can be in-person or remote using web conference.
32. How many testers should you get? 2 Get testers.
33. How many testers should you get? 8–10 2 Get testers.
34. How many testers should you get? 8–10 > 0 O R 2 Get testers.
35. How does it work? Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
36. Let’s try it!
37. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. Thank them! Explain the process. Tell them to try their best, but that it’s okay to give up. Explain that you’re testing the site, not them. Ask them to “think out loud.” OK to record? B E F O R E T E S T I N G
38. You are a PhD student in the Economics program. You want to find out the requirements for your dissertation and how it will be evaluated. Y O U R M I S S I O N
39. Ask for general feedback or any other thoughts. Thank them again! A F T E R T E S T I N G 3 Watch testers perform the tasks.
40. How does it work? Write tasks. 1 2 Get testers. 3 Watch testers perform the tasks. 4 Learn from their struggles.
41. 4 Learn from their struggles. What did you notice? How can we make this easier?
42. Metrics to gather 4 Learn from their struggles.
43. Metrics to gather C O M P L E T I O N 0 O R 1 4 Learn from their struggles.
44. Metrics to gather T I M E O N TA S K 1:23 C O M P L E T I O N 0 O R 1 4 Learn from their struggles.
45. Metrics to gather T I M E O N TA S K 1:23 U S E R R AT I N G 0–10 C O M P L E T I O N 0 O R 1 4 Learn from their struggles.
46. Let’s try it!
47. Any thoughts, observations, or questions to share? Who here just learned something about their site?
48. Email me: victoria@digital-loom.com Sample recruiting message Script for testing sessions Results spreadsheet Templates