Usability Testing Guidelines

Published by writer at April 30, 2019

1. Know your audience

Before you can even think of starting tests, you need to know what is your market for your product or service. Many people refer to this as your market or demographic target. It is important to know who you are trying to sell your good to because it will shape the way you advertise it. For example, if you are selling a new Bluetooth speaker you would create ads that appeal to people who enjoy music and like technology. If you do not know your target audience, your product or service could fail miserably as the people seeing your advertisements will not be compelled to buy.

2. Find people of the demographic target to be test subjects

Once you understand your market, the next step is to find people that apply to it and have them become your testers. Since they are people you are trying to sell to, they will provide you with the most accurate data to use. If your test subjects were not interested, they would provide useless information. This is why it is so essential to find people that you are selling to because they can give you advice on how to improve your product and marketing technique.

3. Assist test subjects with pre-testing help

To ensure your participants will provide useful feedback, it is important that you make sure everything before the testing is as stress-free as possible. You want your subjects to be in a good state of mind and not to be angry or stressed in any way. If they are not in a good mood, they might give more negative feedback which would mostly be based on their mood. By communicating effectively and helping them with any questions, you can reduce the chance of their emotions by harming your test results.

4. Slowly adjust testers

Throughout the testing, your participants should always feel comfortable and relaxed. To make sure everything runs smoothly, it is best to ease the test subjects into the testing by introducing them to what they are testing and giving them some background information. If you were to put them into a room with no information, they would probably be confused and not provide good data. When your subjects are well-informed they will be able to test your product or service to the best of their ability. It is a good idea to provide snacks or drinks as they could get hungry or thirsty during their testing.

5. Have clear objectives

When designing your test you want to make sure they will highlight what you hope to improve on. By making sure the tester will try certain aspects of your choosing, you can directly see how they interact with them. If there is too much going on, it could become difficult to analyze your data. To get the most out of your tests, it is a good idea to indirectly lead your subjects to test the different aspects so you can make adjustments if need be. It is also a good idea to make sure your subjects are completing one task at a time so the chances of getting confused decrease and it is easier to analyze as well.

6. Any feedback is good feedback

Once the tests are complete, the most important part of usability testing occurs, collecting users’ thoughts on the experience. The whole purpose of usability testing is to learn how the consumer will react to the product or service and how their experience with it was. These are the main points that the participant should tell you about and sometimes they will not be positive. It is important to remember that any feedback is good feedback because it can all be used to better the product or service. You should not take any feedback personally and only use it as data to better the user experience for the future.

7. Compile data from multiple usability tests and make adjustments

After all the data and suggestions have been collected from the test subjects, it is now time to analyze their inputs and apply them to the product or service. It is important to see what pleased and what disappointed your participants because that is what you would like to build on or reduce. Say your testers had a difficult time looking for the company’s phone number, then you would probably want to fix your website so it is easier to locate the contact information. Sometimes the first round of usability testing will not be enough, or you might want to test your updated version, then you would simply start from the beginning and conduct the usability test the same as the first time. Usability testing is crucial for businesses looking to improve their user experience, so hopefully, these guidelines will help you if you decide to do testing of your own.

USER is the first UX research company in Asia and maybe the first usability testing lab rental service provider in Singapore. They have locations in Singapore, China, and Vietnam and have helped over 20 MNCs and 100 SMEs since their beginning in 2011. They are seen as the best usability testing lab in Singapore as they help with testing for different products like websites, apps, smart home appliances, and much more all in a professional lab. Their process includes user research, expert evaluation, and usability lab testing. Some benefits of conducting usability testing with USER is that they have a bunch of free perks like monitor room, camera recording, and an eye tracking device. If you are a business looking to conduct usability training, USER is the best of the best.