Usability testing is a widely-used and effective technique for improving the design of your product. But many common beliefs about what usability testing is for and how to conduct usability tests effectively can get in the way of doing usability testing well -- or at doing it all. Strangely, these beliefs are often completely at odds with the practices of most user experience professionals!
Examples of these beliefs include:
- usability testing requires defining a number of strict "tasks" for users and then quantifying their performance on each task
- usability testing should be performed at the very end of a project, with a nearly-finished application or website
- usability testing should done in a controlled environment, ideally a "usability lab" with a one-way mirror for observation
- the findings from usability tests should be summarized in an extensive, formally-structured report, analogous to an academic research article
- insights from analytics and/or automated testing techniques can replace direct observations of people using your product
Some of these beliefs represent legacy knowledge (usability engineering practices of the 80s and 90s), which user experience practitioners have added to and evolved over the past decade. Others seem to result from a misunderstanding of what usability testing is intended to accomplish.
This presentation will focus on introducing a contemporary understanding of usability testing based on the hard-won knowledge of user experience practitioners. My hope is this contemporary viewpoint will actually be far more relevant, valuable, and exciting to entrepreneurs than are legacy practices. I look forward to a robust discussion about how to best incorporate usability testing into your design and development practices.
Abe Crystal, Ph.D., is Principal Design Researcher at MoreBetterLabs. He co-founded the Triangle Usability Professionals Association, and served as Vice President in 2006, President in 2007, and Chair of the Advisory Council in 2008 and 2009.
The event will be held at Credit Suisse in RTP
Due to host security, it is important to register by Tuesday 9/6 and bring a photo ID to show to security at the main entrance on arrival.