Usability Testing is an observational technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. It is great to get early feedback on your product before writing a single line of code, or even designing a hi-fi mock-up.

1. Validating Feature
Ideas Through
Usability Testing
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
March 2018

3. Misael
Sandra

4. Power Up your
Product through
Research and Design
March 2018
UX TEAM BY NEARSOFT

5. Hello!
Who are you?

6. ● What is a Usability Test
● Define Tasks
● Run the Usability Testing
● Interpret Findings
● Showcase & Wrap up
Our Time Together
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

7. ● We want to build the right features
● Validate your assumptions
● Understand users’ behavior
Why this workshop?
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

8. We are not the users...
Let's not forget...
We act upon hunches
based on our experience
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

9. Today we’ll learn to...
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
Validate ideas and
assumptions
Understand users’
behavior
Identify critical
workflow errors

10. Usability Test
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
An observational technique used in user-centered interaction
design to evaluate a product by testing it on users.

11. What we say
What we do
(gap)

12. Myth

13. Reality

14. How many users to test?
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
Usually 5 users are enough to spot the major issues at the
interface level.
Norman Nielsen Group:
“This lets you find almost as many usability problems as
you'd find using many more test participants.”
Source Article

15. 1. Set the goal based on your prototype
2. Define the audience & recruit the participants
3. Write down the tasks you will test
4. Prepare the setting and recording devices
5. Run the session
6. Analyze findings and iterate the idea
How to run usability tests?
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

16. 1. Set the goal based on your prototype
2. Define the audience & recruit the participants
3. Write down the tasks you will test
4. Prepare the setting and recording devices
5. Run the session
6. Analyze findings and iterate the idea
How to run usability tests?
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

17. Time to work!

18. USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
Today’s Exercise
Run a Usability Test for main workflows from a:
1. A music streaming service app
Spotify, Google Play Music, etc
2. A service app with a map
Google Maps, Yelp, Uber, etc
Optional: Your own app or any other app...

19. Define Tasks

20. Define Tasks of Study
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
1. Consider the goal of the study
2. Provide a scenario with minimal context
3. Use neutral language people understand
4. Involve your team in writing and/or reviewing tasks
5. Don’t give away clues or hints
6. Don’t describe the steps

21. USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
Example of Task
Identify if users are
able to mute on
Twitter.
Goal:
You are getting tired
of the same content
that certain people
post, and you don't
want to see it anymore
on your feed.
Scenario:
Make future content
disappear without
ending the Twitter
connection with that
person.
Task:

23. EXERCISE # 1
Define 5 Tasks
to Test
→ Make a list with 5 tasks your
users will perform on your
product and define the goal
of each task
→ Make sure you define how
success looks like
→ Provide a minimal scenario of
the use case
10 MINUTES

24. USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
Run the Test

25. Before the Test
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
1. Explain why are we doing this test
2. Make them feel comfortable
3. We are evaluating the product, not the user
4. Ask them to think out loud

26. During the Test
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP
1. Let the user describe each screen you show. Let them talk.
2. Ask the user to describe what he expects to happen after a
particular interaction.
“What do you think will happen after you hit this button?”
3. Ask for explanations about their reasons. Ask why.
4. Don’t answer their questions… just yet.

27. EXERCISE # 1
Run the
Usability Test
→ Choose roles: One facilitator,
one participant. The rest will
be observers.
→ Observe what the participant
tries to accomplish.
→ Take notes of important
feedback
→ Always ask WHY!!!
10 MINUTES

28. Interpret Findings

29. EXERCISE # 3
Interpret your
Findings
→ Make a list of critical errors
you found
→ What the user was trying to
do vs. What the user did
→ Determine the severity of
each finding. Look for patterns
→ Annotate what to add,
remove, correct, pivot
5 MINUTES

30. ● Collect metrics of task completion
What would be next?
RAPID PROTOTYPING WORKSHOP

31. ● Collect metrics of task completion
● Iterate but don’t take all feedback literally
What would be next?
RAPID PROTOTYPING WORKSHOP

32. ● Collect metrics of task completion
● Iterate but don’t take all feedback literally
● Don’t attempt to fix all problems at once, focus on
critical errors first
What would be next?
RAPID PROTOTYPING WORKSHOP

33. ● Collect metrics of task completion
● Iterate but don’t take all feedback literally
● Don’t attempt to fix all problems at once, focus on
critical errors first
● Test again, again, and again!
What would be next?
RAPID PROTOTYPING WORKSHOP

34. ● What did you find out?
● How would you apply this to your job?
● What was your Aha! Moment?
Show how good you did

35. ● Test before you design and code
● Test any idea you may have
● Watch users in action
● Look for patterns and common issues
Key Takeaways
USABILITY TESTING WORKSHOP

36. Design is all
about people!
March 2018

37. “Design is all
about people.”
Misael Leon
Product Designer
mleon@nearsoft.com
misaello
misaelleon
Thanks!March 2018
Sandra Vazquez
Business Developer
svazquez@nearsoft.com
sandra_daniela
sandradanielav