Chapter 2: Do a Usability Test Now | Real-World .NET Applications

Basic user research is easy, fast, and highly effective. Some form of user experience research can be done with any product. The question is whether you want to do it yourself. And there's only one way to find that out. Try it. In this chapter, you will learn how to do a fast and easy user research technique, a usability test done with your friends and family. After 15 minutes of reading and a couple of hours of listening, you will have a much better understanding of your customers and which parts of your product are difficult to use.

A Micro-Usability Test

The usability test will tell you whether your audience can use what you've made. It helps identify problems people have with your site and reveals difficult interfaces and confusing language. Normally, usability tests are done as part of a larger research series and involve preparation and analysis. That's what Chapters 5 through 16 of this book are about. However, in the interest of presenting something that's quick and that provides good bang for the buck, here is the friends and family usability test. It's designed to let you get almost immediate feedback on your product, with minimal overhead. If you're reading this chapter in the morning, you could be talking to people by the end of the workday and rethinking some of your product's functionality by tomorrow. But give yourself a day or two to prepare if this is your first time conducting user research.

Note

If you don't have a working product or a semifunctional prototype, then it's a bit too early for you to take best advantage of this technique. You should use one of the research techniques that can be done with nothing but an idea, such as contextual inquiry or focus groups. These are discussed in Chapters 8 and 9 of the book, respectively.

There are four major steps in the process of conducting a usability test.

Define the audience and their goals.
Create tasks that address those goals.
Get the right people.
Watch them try to perform the tasks.

1. Define the Audience and Their Goals

"An evaluation always proceeds from 'why does this thing exist?"

—Dave Hendry, Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School, personal communication

You are making a product for some reason. You have decided that some people in the world can make their lives better with your idea. Maybe it helps them buy something cheaper. Maybe it's to get them information they wouldn't have otherwise. Maybe it helps them connect with other people. Maybe it entertains them.

Regardless, you are making something that you feel provides value for a specific group of people. For them to get that value, there's something they have to do. Usually, it's several things. For a site selling something, it can be "Find the widget, buy it, and subscribe to the newsletter." For a matchmaking site, it can be "Find someone, write her a note, send it, and read her response."

So the first thing you should do in a usability test is to figure out whom the site is for. What describes the people who you expect will use it most often? What differentiates them from everyone else? Is it their age, their interests, their problems? It's probably all of the above, and more.

For example, say that you want to examine the usability of the browsing and purchasing user experience of an online cutlery store. You can quickly create an audience definition for the site's audience. The target audience is people who

want to buy cutlery

But this isn't very specific. My grandmother regularly buys plastic forks for family picnics, but she's not going to be doing it through a Web site. So the definition should be a little more inclusive. The target user audience is people who

want to buy high-end cutlery
are value conscious
want a broad selection
are computer savvy and ecommerce friendly
are not professional cutlery buyers

Next, figure out what the key product features are. Write down what your product is about. Why are people going to use it? Why is it valuable to its users? If you were at a loud party and had 30 seconds to describe your site to someone who had never heard of it, what you would tell them? Write it down.

forkopolis.com enables people all over North America to buy cutlery from one of the largest ranges available, featuring all the major luxury brands and the best designers. It allows for easy location of specific styles and pieces so that buyers can quickly and cheaply replace a single damaged teaspoon or buy a whole restaurant's worth of silverware.

2. Create Tasks That Address Those Goals

Now write down the five most important functions of the site. What should people be able to do above all else? In a sales site, they should obviously be able to purchase things. But they should also be able to find them, whether or not they know exactly what they're trying to buy. Furthermore, they should probably be able to find what's on sale and what's an especially good value. Make a list, describing each function with a sentence or two.

Find specific items by style.
Buy by single item.
Buy by whole setting.
Find special offers.
Find information on returning merchandise.

In a couple of sentences describe a situation where someone would perform that function, written from his or her perspective. Call this a task. If "Find specific items by style" is one of the functions, a task for it would be

You decided that you want to buy a set of Louis XIV forks from forkopolis.com. Starting from the homepage of forkopolis, find a set of Louis XIV forks.

Finally, order the tasks from the easiest to the hardest. Starting with an easy task makes people comfortable with the product and the process.

3. Get the Right People

Now, find some people who fit the profile you created in step 1. When doing a quick exercise like this, you can get a decent idea of the kinds of problems and misunderstandings that occur with real users by bringing in five or six people who are similar to the people you expect will be interested in your product. The fastest way to get such people is through the people you already know. If you're in a large company, this could be co-workers from departments that have nothing to do with your product. If you're in a small company, this can be your friends and family and your co-workers' friends and families. It can be people from the office down the hall. It can be people off the street. As long as they're somewhat like the people you expect to visit your site, it can be anybody who is unfamiliar with the product and unbiased to like or dislike it (so a doting grandmother and the CEO of your biggest competitor are probably excluded). Unless your product is designed for developers, avoid people who make Web sites for a living: they know too much.

Contact these people, telling them that you'd like to have them help you evaluate the effectiveness of a product you're working on. Don't tell them any more about it than the short description you wrote at the top of the task list. Tell them that no preparation is needed, that they should just come in. Schedule them a day or two in advance for half-hour individual interviews, leaving 15 minutes in between each interview.

4. Watch Them Try to Perform the Tasks

First, write a script that you and your invited evaluators will follow. Put your short site description at the top of the page. This will be all that the evaluators will be told about your product. Don't tell them anything else. In the real world, a short description and a link is often all that someone will know. On separate pages, write down your tasks, one per page. Don't include any information that users wouldn't have if they had just started using the service.

Now get a computer and a quiet room where you and the evaluators can talk about the product without being distracted. Small, out-of-the-way conference rooms often work well. Make sure that there is nothing related to the product around, so as not to distract the evaluators or provide information that could be confusing. Thus, no notes, no company propaganda posters, no whiteboard leftovers, and no tradeshow mouse pads.

Set up the computer for the tasks. Set up the browser in the most generic configuration possible, removing custom toolbars, custom colors, display options, and extraneous bookmarks. Bookmark the start pages people are going to need for each of the scenarios you've written.

When each evaluator arrives, prepare him or her for what's going to happen. Make the evaluators feel comfortable. Introduce the process by saying the following:

They've been invited to help you understand which parts of the product work for them and which are confusing.
Even though it's called a test, they're not the ones being tested, but evaluating how well the product works, so there's nothing they can do wrong. Emphasize that it's not their fault if they can't get something to work and that they won't hurt anyone's feelings if they say something bad about the product.
It's really important that they speak all of their thoughts aloud. Suggest that they give a "play-by-play" narration of what they're doing and why they're doing it.
You'll stay in the same room and quietly listen to them while taking notes, but they should ignore you, focusing on the tasks and their play-by-play descriptions.

(You'll probably want to write specific wording for each of these points ahead of time into the script you started with the product description.)

Once the participants are comfortable and you've given them the initial instructions, read the product description and the sheets with the task descriptions. Tell them to do the tasks in the best way they can, but if they can't figure one out in a couple of minutes, they should feel free to move on to the next task. Reinforce that they should be speaking aloud the whole time.

Then, let them talk. Sit back and watch, quietly taking notes. If they get stuck, don't tell them where to click or what to look at. No matter what, don't tell them how to do something. If they seem to be particularly frustrated, tell them that it's not their fault if something seems impossible, and they should move on to the next task.

Once all the tasks have been completed, or the half hour is over, it's time to stop. Ask the evaluators to tell you their general impression and whether they would use the site "in real life." Then give them a present for their time (a gift certificate to a local restaurant or a bookstore, a coupon for lunch at the company cafeteria, a tank of gas—whatever seems appropriate for your audience), thank them, and send them on their way.

Finally, reset the computer for the next evaluator, clearing the cache and history and setting it to a blank page.