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Getting Started with Usability Testing

Posted on April 05, 2000

in IA/Usability

by peter van dijck (pedrito)

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peter van dijck

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User since: October 22, 1999

Last login: August 30, 2005

Articles written: 23

The best way to get started in usability is getting your hands dirty. Yes, people, that means testing.

Now, many web designers have never actually seen any users using their sites. If you're one of them, prepare for a bit of a shock. You'll probably find people can't use them, especially if there's functionality involved (forms, etc.). So go ahead, do some testing.

How to do user testing:

There are a few important rules and steps to follow when doing user testing:

  1. Get a person who fits the user profile for the site. Don't get someone who has worked on it, don't get a geek. Get a real person (off the streets if you have to). Try to get someone that's as close as possible to the intended users of the site.
  2. Sit them down in front of a computer, give them the URL, and tell them a small scenario, like: "I'm testing this CV site, imagine you're a person looking for a job and try to enter your CV." Also tell them to think aloud, especially when they're wondering about something.
  3. Then: shut up. Don't speak. Do not utter a word!
  4. Sounds easy, but see if you actually can shut up.
  5. Watch them use the site. If they ask you something, tell them you're not there. Then shut up again.
  6. Start noting all the things you're gonna have to change.
  7. Afterwards ask them what they thought.

Easy, isn't it? You'll be surprised at the results, and what's even cooler, you can now put "usability testing" on your CV.

Finally, here are some links. I'm not giving all of them, just the top sites you just must visit, if you haven't already.

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website
The grandfather of usability, Jacob Nielsen has been writing his monthly AlertBox for years. An obligatory read.

WebWord.com
Daily links by John Rhodes that have to do with usability. Read this and you'll be all up to date.

User Interface Engineering
These guys have some fantastic articles. The research is all well done and well explained, you'll be sure to learn some interesting things here.

Usable Web
Hundreds of links. When doing research, this is the place to go.

Peter Van Dijck is an Information Architect with an interest in localization, accessibility, content management systems and metadata.
  • poorbuthappy.com/ease Weblog
  • petervandijck.net Portfolio
  • Easytopicmaps.com
  • liga1.com Accessibility and localization
    • 4 comments on this article. Log in to add your comment | Rate this article: Rate this node 1 star.Rate this node 2 star.Rate this node 3 star.Rate this node 4 star.Rate this node 5 star.

    Submitted by MartinB on April 6, 2000 - 15:52.

    Excellent quick start article, Pedrito, covering a number of the core requirements of usability testing. With one user, you'll find a hell of a lot of your usability issues (about 25% of them). Your site will then be in the top few percentiles of sites in terms of usability. Even very large companies fail to perform explicit usability testing, often confusing it with market research. With 5 users, you'll find nearly all of them. More than 5 and you'll spend more time than it's worth performing and collating the responses. However, once you've got the data from your 1st test cycle and implemented the changes, then you go back and do it again with another 3-5 users. And do it again after that - 3-5 test cycles will catch almost everything. The other useful thing to do at the start of your design process is heuristic evaluation. Big jargon words, meaning a simple thing: "make sure it follows the known rules of Human-Computer Interaction". You'll find them on Jakob's site.

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    Submitted by pintsize on April 8, 2000 - 23:05.

    Another good idea is to give your tester a list of items to purchase or simple questions to answer. We asked a customer recently if their e-commerce efforts had shown results yet. The customer replied that they did see a noticeable increase in sales, but with orders over the phone rather than online. Apparently people are coming to the site and reading about these great products, but they don't place an order because the links to the catalog are confusing. When we asked for details, we discovered that the customers want a simple "Click here to order" and that's not what we were giving them. So we are in the process of reworking the design and then will test it on some AOL users. If they can get it...

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    More on Testing

    Submitted by MartinB on December 14, 2000 - 04:34.

    There's an introduction to a wider range of testing in my article The Tao of Testing.

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    Practical Approach to Usability

    Submitted by Ajit Bhandhel on November 18, 2008 - 20:17.

    A great no-nonsense introductory article to usability. I especially like how it's emphasized that an ordinary user be chosen to test sites. Perhaps integrating in other concepts such as user experience is useful as well (The Elements of User Experience).

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