The document discusses usability testing as a method in user-centered design to evaluate products by testing them with users. It outlines the reasons for usability testing, methods of testing, and best practices, including preparation steps and evaluation procedures. Key points include engaging various stakeholders, observing user interactions, and prioritizing serious usability issues for resolution.

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UsabilityTesting
Is it awesome or not?
Tomas Muchka / November 19, 2014

2. © Copyright 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.2
Today I‘m going to talk about
• What is usability testing
• Why are we testing usability
• How to test usability
• Basic steps of usability testing
• Test evaluation

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“Don‘tmakemethink”
Steve Krug, usability guru at Sensible.com

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What is usability testing
A technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by
testing it on users.

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Why are we testing usability
• Fast
• Cheap
• Unburden feedback
• It brings results!

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Expert review
• Expert evaulators
• Heuristic evaluation
A/B testing
• Mostly in web applications
• Two or more versions of tested feature
• Decisions through analytics
How to test usability
Hallway testing
• In-house testing
• People from outside the team
Remote usability testing
• People are not located in the same
building/city/country
• Real-time vs post-time review

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Best advices on usability testing
• Get as many people as possible
(Stakeholders, Managers, Developers…)
• Attend in person
• Seeing is believing
• Usually, nobody hurts others feelings
• Focus only on the most serious problems

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Basicstepsofusabilitytesting

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Vocabulary
Test participants
People who test the chosen feauture/product.
They should be similiar to the real customers.
Test observers
All possible stakeholders who will attend the
testing session. They should watch, ask
questions to others and write important
usability problems.
Test facilitator
A tour guide and therapist for test
participants.
Hall monitor / Test buddy
Someone who will help you with test
preparations.

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Early preparations
Three weeks before
• Finding out what to test
• Task list creation
Two weeks before
• Task list iterations
• Participants selection

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One week and less
One week before
• Instructions for the participants
• Public e-mail about the event to the
observers
One day before
• A pilot test of the scenarios
• Hall monitor / Test buddy recruitment

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Test day
Test participants
• One hour of testing per participant
• No stress, no rules, just think aloud
• Be honest, nobody will get hurt
Test observers
• Observation room (Screen and voice sharing)
• Watch, comment, cooperate…
• Afternoon debriefing

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TestEvaluation

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Debriefing
Key points
• As soon as possible after testing session
• Take the worst first
• Ideally only for the test session attendees
Outcomes
• A list of most serious usability problems
• A list of problems which are going to be fixed
before next testing round

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What problems should be fixed
Key points
• Get top three problems from all attendees
• Vote or pick the top usability problems
• Discuss how each problem could be fixed
within next month
Tips for success
• Stick to what you have observed
• Focus on the most serious problems

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Further reading

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Usabilitytestingisawesome
Tomas Muchka, SW Designer at HP