15 April 2013
- Choosing subject
- Do not choose people in the company or people involved in the project.
- Choose people that will use the product eventually
- Before the testing
- Prepare all the tools to be used
- Computers (Advisable is Mac, since it has built in webcam and audio recorder)
- Softwares:
- Silverback – Records the screen, voice and face reactions of the user http://silverbackapp.com/
- Microsoft Office
- Observers – they are the people involved in the project. Set 2 observers per tester. One designer and one developer.
- Rules for the observers
- Don’t help the participants; let them use the site naturally. Just incase they’re stuck and can’t continue, that’s the time you will talk and help them out.
- Note all the reactions of the user
- Rules for the observers
- Prepare the program and scripts
- Program
- Example Program
2pm – 2:30pm Introduction
2:30pm – 3:30pm Usability Testing
3:30pm – 4pm Closing Discussions (Comments/Suggestions)
- Example Program
- Script
- Introduce yourself
- Reassure to establish rapport ‘You cannot make mistakes, we are testing the site and not you’
- Clarify purpose of test, confidentiality issues
- Explain the flow of the test
- Program
- Prepare all the tools to be used
- Starting the test
- Sit the testers down and run through the first part of your script
- Turn on the computer, show them only the first activity and let them read it.
- Notice the user’s behavior (hestitates, worries, gives up, etc..)
- After they finished an activity, the observers can ask questions to the tester, make sure not to distract the other testers.
- The testers will work independently; they will not wait for each other. Once a tester is done with the activity, he/she can proceed to the next activity.
- After the test
- Make the tester answer the usability questionnaires.
- Gather as much as possible; ask overall impressions of the site.
- Ask for suggestions to provide insights from the real user to improve the site.
- Say thank you, give a gift or a token of appreciation if appropriate.