Usability testing in lab environment.

1. Usability testing in
a easy (& cheap) way
Veiko Raime
Mobi Lab Design Friday
http://lab.mobi

2. designing & developing for mobile
How many participants?
You need 5 testers to find
most of your bugs
Nielsen, Jakob, and Landauer, Thomas K.: "A mathematical model of the finding of usability problems,"

3. designing & developing for mobile
Team set-up
• Personas, users, human beings, dogs
• Moderator telling the story, guiding and asking questions
• Observers/note takers - more than one (2-3)

4. designing & developing for mobile
Preparation
• Phone with the application
• Test scenario - journey
• Questionary

5. designing & developing for mobile
Introduction
• Explain process, explain that no mistakes can be made
• Ask user to speak all the time
• Explain the persona (if needed)
• Explain the goal or journey

6. designing & developing for mobile
Conduction
• Make notes of all the comments
• Let moderator to ask more questions but avoid directing
• If possible, use camera to record emotions
• If possible, use camera to record finger movements

7. designing & developing for mobile
Summarising
• Structure the notes
• Go through them together
• Rank the issues
• Add metrics for fixes

8. designing & developing for mobile
Challenges
• Find person matching to your personas. Role playing?
• Timing - when is the right time: too late means cost, too early
means that product is not viable yet
• Not able to test the whole journey

9. designing & developing for mobile
Costs
• Preparing scenarios - 4h
• Preparing tests, devices, lab - 1h
• Conducting the test - 1h x 4 persons x 3 users
• Summarising - 4h x 3 persons
Total: 29 man-hours