How to conduct effective user test
Learn the most about your users
Developing a product is not about you designing what you think is good for your users, quite the opposite. You should be designing what your users love and are able to use with ease. Spotting a flawed design can be almost instant and our potential users could complain and never come back. That is due to the nature of human emotions and the online world is a perfect medium to express our dissatisfactions.
Throughout my career as a student, teacher and a product designer, I’ve done user testing both online and in person, as well as conducted user tests solo and with a moderator. To conduct the most effective user test, I recommend you distance yourself from your project and don’t get emotionally attached to it. The best way to do that is to have a partner that will act as a moderator, and you observe and take notes on the user test. In case you don’t have a moderator, I’d like to refer an article I wrote about conducting a user test by yourself.
It may be challenging to make changes to designs you personally like, because you are emotionally invested into them.
Ultimately, testing effectively is done in three steps.
Step 1: Have a moderator conduct the test
A moderator can be your teammate or your coworker, who in the most optimal case wasn’t directly involved in the design of the project. There are two main benefits for having a moderator.
1. A moderator will not be emotionally invested into the project and will not take any feedback personally.
2. A moderator will follow your instructions, and won’t accidentally influence the testers by providing them information that they themselves don’t know.
Having a moderator is tremendous help, because your sole focus is on observing what the user is doing. You can pay attention to their actions, emotions, struggles and not get distracted by having to ask or answer any questions.
Step 2: Instruct your moderator
Instruct your moderator on how you want them to conduct the user testing and what their specific role is.
It is best experience to establish a short rapport with the user to make them relaxed and comfortable. Then have your moderator inform the user that the user test is recorded for later analysis. After a friendly atmosphere is established, your moderator should encourage the user to speak out loud during the test about their thoughts and actions when testing your product. This will give you an insight of the thought process of the user and you will get a clear picture of how users are interacting with your product.
Since your moderator wasn’t personally involved in development & design, you need to inform them about the three ‘W’.
What is being tested?
Introduce your project to your moderator. Give them an overview and background of the project, so they have just enough information necessary to explain the user what they are about to do.
Such information should include:
- What is the scenario the user is finding themselves in,
- What is their role and motivation in the scenario,
- Are there any assumptions made the user should be aware of.
What are the user tasks?
Clearly define the tasks that the moderator is going to test on your project. Tasks could range from simply things such as attaching a file to an email, or finding a specific information within an app or a website.
What steps should be taken in order to complete the tasks?
Your moderator should have full knowledge on precisely what steps are to be taken to complete the tasks they are testing. They may not be familiar with all the features and details of your project as that may not be necessary and could possibly lead to giving accidental tips or hints to the user.
Step 3: Observe the test from a distance
Since you are not conducting the test yourself, you can take better notes and focus better on just the user. Analyze not just their actions, but also their emotions and facial expressions. You can learn a lot about your user’s feelings towards a product just from their behavior and emotions.
After all, emotions drive more than 80 percent of our decision-making, while logic makes up the rest.
Lastly remember to take good notes. After a successful test, you should save the results for later analysis and comparisons. Charts and spreadsheets are your friend for data comparisons and evaluations.
In case you are conducting several user tests in a row, take a short break after saving your notes, clear your mind and start fresh from the beginning with getting clean data driven results.
