What I Learned From my First Usability Test
Usability testing allows for real users to test out the product before the big release to fix anything that is not as intuitive as predicted. It helps eliminate bias from the team that created the product and get it in the hands of an audience who will give honest feedback.
Usability testing seems obvious to prioritize, but that is not always the case for most companies. However, companies that have invested in this niche have secured a better bottom line. In fact, “Amazon ‘s Jeff Bezos invested in usability design 100 times more than in marketing during the portal’s first year.” That is huge!
During my digital experience internship, I had the chance to see the inner workings of a usability test. This is what I learned and what I found critical to an effective study.
Zoom out
Coming into the study, I received a brief walk-through to get familiar with how a study is setup. I went through the study myself for the first time as an authentic user not viewing the updates prior. The ideal participants should be the ones using the product the most. As a screener for participants, we asked them their frequency in viewing the page we were testing for. If it wasn’t once a day, once a week, or once a month — they exited the study.
Questions we wanted to answer:
- Will frequent and opinionated users, of the graph we were testing appreciate the modifications made to assist in their previous frustrations of the page?
- Is the page easy to navigate and intuitive to a users’ instincts?
- Does the user actively track their lifestyle habits to find this enhancement valuable?
Tools Used
We used an online user experience research platform to initiate the test. This is a great tool to take advantage of because customers can participate from anywhere. Additionally, the tool offers filters and insights on the data collected to make drawing conclusions and solutions from the test easier.
Results
The study gave us fresh eyes into what we were designing by seeing through click tests and heat maps that there was confusion surrounding the enhancements. For example, the user did not understand a verbiage we associated with viewing a key feature. A bigger finding was that the users did not overwhelmingly elect they knew an info graphic was clickable to reveal greater insights on their spending habits.These opportunities for iterations on the design are critical to ensuring the user can take advantage of the product without pain points that diminish the digital experience and bring down brand reputation.
Stakeholder Approval
This can be a push and pull type of conversation for companies where UX is not leveraged properly. People who do not understand the scope and responsibilities of a UX team can react defensively to objective recommendations and results of a usability test.
It is important to tread lightly first by saying the product overall is good, but would benefit from a few enhancements proven to be necessary from the usability test. Implying what changes need to be made based off the pain points instead of explicitly stating them, which would allow the stakeholders to come to their own conclusion of what the next steps should be, would result in those iterations being made.
Usability tests are the backbone of design decisions. It was a very insightful experience to collaborate with product owners on their prototype and draw what questions we need to ask the users based on the stated KPIs.
Promoting objective perspectives to be the base of design decisions is a step in the right direction for creative and subjective work, much like design.
