This document provides information about adding usability testing to your skill set. It discusses why usability testing is important, what rapid usability testing entails, different testing methods, and the preparation and process for conducting an unmoderated usability study. Key steps include defining goals, preparing materials like tasks and recruitment, setting up the test environment, observing and analyzing participant videos, and reporting findings to stakeholders. Conducting even a small number of tests can uncover major usability issues.

1. ADD USABILITY TESTING
TO
YOUR SKILL SET!
#badcamp #badcampux
@lisarex @dcmistry

2. Lisa Rex
@lisarex

3. Dharmesh Mistry
@dcmistry

4. Refer a friend! Know someone
who would be perfect for one of our
open positions? $2500 is yours if
your referral is hired
We’re Hiring!
lisa.rex@acquia.com dharmesh.mistry@acquia.com

5. And who
are you?

6. AGENDA
A few basics
Preparation for a study
Conducting an unmoderated usability
study
The analysis
Q&A

7. A FEW BASICS

8. WHY ARE USABILITY STUDIES IMPORTANT?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/0olong/479270001/

9. Buying a shirt for
someone...

10. A
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisinplymouth/4456434875

11. B
http://www.flickr.com/photos/epsos/4444576795/

12. C
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whistlepunch/5176579823/

13. WHAT THE HECK IS RAPID USABILITY TESTING?
Observe real users doing real tasks
Quick turnaround vs academically
rigorous
Simple reports

14. “Testing with one user is 100% better than testing
with none.”
- Steve Krug

15. FLAVOR THAT SUITS YOU
Formative vs. Summative
Moderated vs.
Unmoderated
In Person vs. Remote

16. The preparation

17. GENERAL CONSTRUCTION
1. Goals
2. Prepare
- Recruit (Moderated)
- Conduct (Moderated)
- Set up (Unmoderated)
3. Watch the videos & analyze
4. Report findings

18. PREP STEP 1: GOALS
Talk to stakeholders:
“What are the business goals of the study?”
“What do we need to learn?”
“What are our primary tasks & personas?”
“When do we need it?”
“What’s our budget for usability testing and fixing
problems?”

19. PREP STEP 2: WHAT TO TEST?
Information
architecture
Prototype
Staging site
Production site
You can test at any point during the project
lifecycle

20. PREP STEP 3: PARTICIPANTS
Who to test?
New users vs. current users
Primary roles & personas
How many to test?
5 participants per study is ideal for uncovering
the major usability problems while remaining
quick and cost effective.
15+ participants for a card sort / IA study

21. PREP STEP 4: CHOOSING THE METHOD
Variety of webapps
Usertesting.com, Verifyapp, Treejack,
etc

22. PREP STEP 5: STUDY OUTLINE
Starting URL
Scenario
Tasks (include login details)
Post-session questions
Choose your participants
http://bit.ly/views-study

23. PREP STEP 5a: WRITING TASKS
Do not use words that are in the UI
Phrase things in the way people think
Write in plain language
Put tasks in order; dependencies between the
tasks?
Include assists
Ask them to rate their experience

24. PREP STEP 5: TEST SITE ENVIRONMENT
How will they access the site?
Content and user account setup is
needed?
Do you need to set up separate sites
for each? Or re-set between sessions?
Tip: Use can use Drush to disable and uninstall modules!
Or, if you have a dev, stage and prod environment,
overwrite the database on the testing environment

25. Starting URL: drupal.org
Scenario: You have built sites in other
CMS, have heard of Drupal, and would like
to know more. You work for a non-profit
that is looking to replace it’s site with an
open source solution.

26. Task 1: Explore for a couple minutes and tell me
what you have learned about Drupal.
Task 2: You want to find Drupal experts for hire.
Show me how you would do this.
Task 3: If you didn’t find it already, Marketplace
lists Drupal companies. Now, you want to learn
more about the Drupal community. What would
you do?
Task 4: Let’s say you want to post a support
question in the forums. Tell me what steps you
would take.

27. PREP STEP 8: OBSERVATION FORM
Priority/Severity
Issue summary
Link to screenshot
Task name
Participants who had the issue (frequency)

28. PREP STEP 6: CHOOSE YOUR PARTICIPANTS

29. STEP 5: WATCH THE VIDEOS
What to note?
Things that went well
Things that did not go well
Capture quotes and annotate screenshots or get
video clips

30. STEP 5: ANALYSIS, cont.
Categorize things that did not go well into bugs
and usability issues
Severity: Low/Medium/ High (or
1-5)
Frequency: Number of occurrences
Scope: Local/ Global

31. STEP 6: THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Overall: There were no Critical problems
uncovered. Overall, the response was positive
and participants could find their way towards
achieving the tasks quickly.
High severity findings
• Bulleted list
Medium severity findings
• Bulleted list
The detailed findings can be found at [URL].

32. Tools for testing live
sites
- Usertesting.com
- Userlytics.com
- Loop11
Tools for testing
screenshots
- Five Second Test
- Invision app
- Verifyapp
Other
- Treejack (IA studies)
- Webform.com (Diary studies)

33. Q&A