Alexis Abakasanga

Day 6: Usability Testing

Working with real data, and not guesswork

Alexis Abakasanga's photo
Alexis Abakasanga
·

2 min read

The resource for today's challenge is the same as Day 3. I decided to take a deeper dive into usability testing while still maintaining brevity in this article.

We need an iterative design process that is driven by observations of real user interactions with our solution because even the best designers can't design a perfect solution on the first try. The sooner any crucial issues are discovered, the better our chances of that solution's success.

The underlying goal of usability testing is to validate my solution, is it usable and intuitive?

Did you know 90% of all startups fail, 10% fail within the first year, and 70% fail within five years? This is due to misreading market demand and a lack of research.

There are three general types of studies

  1. Moderated or unmoderated

  2. Remote or in-person

  3. Explorative or comparative

A typical session consists of a facilitator, tasks, and participants.

  • Facilitator: administers tasks to the participants, observes, and records their actions. They may also guide participants through the entire process.

  • Task: a realistic scenario of usage that participants perform while interacting with the solution. It can be open or very specific in nature.

  • Participants: They follow through with tasks in an open or specific environment. It can be in-person or remote.

Pros of Usability Testing

  1. Future mistakes are prevented

  2. Sheds light on potential problems

  3. Designers get to work on real data, not guesswork

Best Practices for Usability Testing

  1. Challenge assumptions

  2. Get consent

  3. Decide what metrics to measure

  4. Run a pilot test

  5. Be inclusive

It is important to pay attention to user's behavior while they interact with the product. Pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Users do not know what they want.

Key takeaways/learnings

As a designer, I have to listen to more people who are different from me and gather new insights and perspectives to build better products that serve more people.

References

Thank you for reading my article, have a great day 👋🏽

Product Design60daysUXchallengeux designfigma