Why user testing matters
Tips and experience for success
From a UI/UX student to a product designer, user testing is one of my favorite tasks to do, because I get to see and understand first hand whether my potential users actually “get” my product. The methodologies of a successful user test are quite simple, but in order to get relevant and meaningful feedback they must be done properly.
Throughout my career I have done user testing as a student, teacher, MyCodi startup founder and every now and then I user test other projects. User testing strategy does not change whether you are a student doing a school project or working for a startup, but from my experience the importance of user testing for a new startup cannot be stressed out enough.
Before any user testing is done, you should have answers to the three ‘W’:
- What am I testing?
- Why am I testing?
- Who do I test?
The ‘what’ is quite simple if you got this far. You can be testing anything from a digital product such as apps, websites or videos for example. Or you can test any physical product that can range from a simple pen to a newly designed board game.
The ‘why’ to do a user test may seem quite obvious, but the more seriously you take it the better the information you are going to get.
Simply doing a user test just because you want to show in your research that you did it does not give you any value and you can just fake the results yourself. But doing serious user testing can have tremendous effect on product development as a whole, where many theories and hypotheses may or may not get validated and the project can possibly even pivot as the outcome of your results.
Imagine my surprise after user testing the content copy of my startup’s website, which was written by a language specialist and a content writer at a fortune 100 company, and realizing people don’t really ‘get’ it.
The ‘who’ is again quite straightforward, as you want to test with people that could be your potential users. If you are to do a user test of an app for reading books, then you want to test with people that actually read books and match your target audience.
With the three ‘W’ answered we can finally talk about how to actually conduct a user test. Ideally you have a partner who is conducting the user test and you are observing and taking notes, but in this article I want to focus on doing a user test just by yourself.
In my experience, doing a user test via a video call or in person doesn’t really matter, as long as you follow a well executed strategy.
- Establish rapport and set a friendly atmosphere
- Introduce the situation the user is in
- Clearly define the task you want your user to test
- Give clear instructions what you want to see/hear
- Let your user struggle and ask meaningful questions
One of your first sentences should be informing the user whether you can record the session, so that you can later access that information or possibly share it with your team.
Setting the atmosphere right is crucial so your user feels comfortable and a mutual trust is established. In my experience I introduce myself and thank the user right away for helping out with the user test. Then I ask them how they are doing and we chat briefly. Showing that you care about your user makes it more personal and gives you a chance to learn more about your user. Lastly I explain what we are about to do without getting into details of my product. The reason for withholding details is that you want to see genuine reactions and responses from your user when they get to interact with your test.
Always introduce the situation the user is in. Don’t just give tell them ‘Your task is to find details of a certain image in the gallery’, for example. Explain to them who they represent in the situation, why they might be looking for such information or perhaps why are they even testing your app or your product. The more they know about the situation they are finding themselves in, the more they can emulate a real user.
Having a clearly defined task should be obvious, but I’ve seen students do ‘pointless’ tests many times. Focus on the core things that make your product great and worthwhile. Sure, testing ‘how to log in or sign up’ might be beneficial if you are coming up with something unique, but more often than not there are already well established patterns and user journeys that we can copy.
When I was testing whether people ‘get and understand’ what my startup’s product is about, the task was to visit our website, go through the content and then try to explain the product to me. This way I would know how much, and if at all they actually understand the information presented to them.
Lot of times especially as a teacher I saw my students who were conducting a user test just observing their users, where they clicked, where they were stuck, and silently watched them struggle.
While it is valid to just observe your users, it is far from optimal. Instead instruct your users if they could read out loud what they see, why they are doing certain actions, what do they expect to happen and to always say out loud what they are thinking. Remind them there is no right or wrong answer, you just want to understand what the users are thinking so that you can improve your product.
Lastly, let your users struggle. Do not tell them where they should click and what they should do. You are not there to guide them, but to find out where or why your users have issues so that you come up with appropriate improvements and adjustments. If your user do seems to struggle or be stuck, be friendly and ask them what they are thinking and what did they expect at a certain point, but do not give them the solution. If they are still struggling, you can hint towards the correct ‘step’ by asking them ‘What do you think might happen if..’ .
Always remember to take good notes and in case you are able to, record the session.
As mentioned before, ideally you bring a partner to your user test, because then one person takes notes while the other focuses on conducting the test itself, but more on that next time when we discuss how to properly conduct user test as a team.
