Practical Usability Testing

Question 1

What is usability testing?

Answer 1

Process of having potential users experience site, software or product through performance based evaluation

Ongoing process

Question 2

What is purpose of usability testing?

Answer 2

Feedback! And enable design improvements

Question 3

Why do a usability test?

Answer 3

Validate design works
Diagnose problems
Compare alternatives
Verify design goals are met

Question 4

What are the benefits to usability testing?

Answer 4

Direct feedback from users and not intermediaries

Provides data and not opinions

Saves development time and money

Positive ROI

Question 5

What are some types of non-performance types of evaluation?

Answer 5

Expert review
Heuristic Evaluations
Subjective evaluations
Preference tests
Peer review
Focus groups

Question 6

Who is involved in a usability test?

Answer 6

Facilitator
Participant
Observer

Question 7

What are 2 main types of usability testing?

Answer 7

Formative

Summative

Question 8

What is a formative usability test?

Answer 8

Conducted during product or site development

Used to determine if a specific design objective is being met

Question 9

What is an example of a formative usability test?

Answer 9

Can a user find and use the mortgage calculator to successfully enter appropriate loan information on an application?

Question 10

What’s a summative usability test and when is it used?

Answer 10

Conducted at the end of development

Used to validate that a product has accomplished intended goals

Question 11

What is an example of a summative test?

Answer 11

Has the new application form increased conversion at the expected rates?

Question 12

What are the 2 main approaches to usability testing?

Answer 12

Small scale qualitative

Large scale quantitative

Question 13

What is the small scale qualitative approach?

Answer 13

Provides many opportunities for observation
Based on expertise and judgement
The specialist observes, interprets, decides
Can use small sample sizes

Purpose is to find issues. Correct technique for iterative design (like agile)

NOT for statistical analysis. Does not represent whole user group

Question 14

What is the large scale quantitative approach?

Answer 14

Focus is on quantitative measure
Results can be generalized to a larger population
Requires large sample size

Question 15

How many users to test small scale qualitatively?

Answer 15

5. Uncover 85% of problems. Test 3 times.

Better cost benefit than 1 test with 15 users

Question 16

What is the law of diminishing returns in usability?

Answer 16

There are a finite number of UI issues. Each user will stumble upon same issues. More users will not help find more issues.

Question 17

How do you present small scale qualitative results?

Answer 17

No statistics.

Present observations and suggestions.

(several users…blah blah. Here’s how we should redesign screen)

Question 18

What is the magic number of participants for small scale testing?

Answer 18

10

Question 19

When do you use the think aloud technique?

Answer 19

When you need to get a users mental model in the process of performing a task

Time is not being measured