Should developers do user research? Not if it distracts them from what they need to focus on. But what if user testing was easy and eye opening? Usability testing has never been easier. Understand the dos and don’ts of a usability test that you can try yourself. Even if this does not become a regular practice, we encourage all our developers to participate in user interviews. Why? Because as a developer you know things that your users don’t. You’ll never be able to un-know them, but you can build empathy with those who don’t.

2. Usability Testing for Developers
Director of User Experience
Elementor
@ainatte
Ainatte Inbal

3. The Case for UX.

4. The vast majority (88%) of users
will abandon a site after just one
bad experience.

5. The Case for UX Research.

6. “
What you want is to be proven wrong
as quickly as possible and for the
lowest cost.
- Erika Hall, Just Enough Research

7. The Case for UX Research by
Developers.

8. “
The goal of research is to create a
strong shared reality among the
members of your team.
- Erika Hall, Just Enough Research

9. “
For more than 20 years, we’ve known that teams
spending time watching users can see
improvements. Yet we still see many teams with
regular user research programs produce
complicated, unusable products. We couldn’t
understand why. Until now.
- Jared M. Spool

10. 10
The Case for
Research.
The Silver bullet: Exposure Time
2 hours, every 6 weeks

11. 11
The Case for
Research.

12. 12
Generative
The goal of generative research is to look to the
world around you to find opportunities for
solutions and innovation. These solutions could
be new products or experiences or they could be
an update or improvement to an existing one.
Types of Research.

13. 13
Evaluative
The goal of the evaluative research methodology
is to test your existing solution to see if it meets
people’s needs, is easy to access and use, and is
hopefully even enjoyable.
Types of Research.

14. 14
The Case for
Research.
But! WE! have!
DATA!

15. 15
Most people can figure how to use the
website/app/service/product for its intended
purpose…
Without it being more trouble than it’s worth.
Usability Testing.

16. 16
Test 3 people and you’ll find more problems than
you can fix.
Start earlier than you think makes sense (a sketch
on a napkin will do).
Usability Testing.

17. 17
Find people that will be using the website in the
real world.
No need for a sample of all your customer
segments.
Selecting Users/Customers.

18. 18
Selecting the Tool.
⏯

19. The Interview.

20. 20
“Do you like this screen?”
“Do you prefer the navigation on the left?”
“What are you thinking right now?”
“What are you trying to do here?”
“Before you click on that link, what would you
expect to see?”
Selecting Users/Customers.

21. 21
“I want to use this website/app because
I want to…”
Login
Buy a pair of size 9 boots
Define the Task.

22. 22
Thanks!
We’re testing the website, not you
Don't worry that you're going to hurt our feelings
Think aloud
You can ask questions, I’ll answer at the end
Are you OK with recording?
* Prepare a script
Intro.
👌

23. 23
• Their job, and the tasks they do in it
• Their experience with products similar to yours
• Just make them comfortable :)
Background.

24. 24
Between 1 and 6 tasks
Don’t give “go to” instructions
The Task/s.
Example:
An app that matches native speakers with people
learning their language
Objective:
User should start a conversation with a German
speaker
Poor task description:
"Go to the new conversation page, add German as
the preferred language, and find an appropriate
user to start a conversation with."
Better task description:
"You want to learn German, so you
signed up for a language app that
matches you with native speakers.
Find someone to speak German with
who lives in your timezone."

25. 25
• Their overall impressions of the product, and
of the session
• What works well/poorly in the product
• Overall difficulties they had with the tasks
• Any comments they wanted to add during the
test but didn’t
Wrap Up.

26. 26
Echo
“This feedback form
works strange”
“Works strange?”
Boomerang
“Should I click this
button to complete
this operation?”
“What do you think?”
Columbo
“When I click the [x]
button in this
window, will I leave
the app?”
“So… you want to… “
Interviewing Techniques.

28. “
We can be blind to the obvious, and
we are also blind to our blindness.
- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow

29. Everywhere: @ainatte
Thank you.
Ainatte Inbal