A cafe study (also called cafe testing or Guerilla usability testing) is an efficient way to run quick usability testing at a public location such as coffee shops or cafeterias. It is a useful tool for user experience designers to test features and get quick feedback without the need to set up a formal usability test, which can be time and resource consuming. In this presentation, I'll describe all aspects before, during, and after a specific cafe study I conducted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. You'll hear just enough about our project for context, then learn from why we decided to run this study, how the test was prepared, what happened on the testing day, and what I learned from this experience. I'll share the tools and templates I've used in this study, as well as tips for how to run a cafe study in your organization.

1. HOWTO RUNYOUR OWN
CAFÉ STUDY
JianqiXing
@xjianqi #how2runcafestudy
U of IWeb Conference 2015
Champaign-Urbana, IL

2. About Me

3. Jianqi Xing
“Jan-Chee Shing”

4. Overview
• Traditional usability studies and their
drawbacks
• Café (or guerrilla) usability studies
– Why I decided to do one myself
– Lessons I’ve learned
– Additional tips

5. Traditional usability testing/study

6. Little budget
Little time
Lots of planning
No enough staff

7. So, what to do?

9. Quick and Participatory: Adopting Users' Designs to Improve
a Mobile App
Design Research Lab, Naver Corp. CHI 2014

11. PrototypeTesting: Working Smarter Not Harder
Nicole Maynard. Chicago Prototype Camp 2014

12. Why not do my own café study?

13. Our café study
• 2 rounds of tests in 2 weeks
• ~20 mins study for each participant
• 10 participants in total
• Data analysis, findings & recommendations,
and final report in just a day

14. Lessons I’ve learned

15. 1. Location, location, location

16. You just need to find a coffee shop, right?
EVERYONE IS OCCUPIED

17. How about those tables outside?

18. TOO NOISY
PEOPLE IN A HURRYTRYINGTO CATCHTHE BUS

19. Lesson 1: Location
• Need to have:
– Appropriate level of traffic
– People who are not too busy or occupied
– Relatively low noise (casual enough for conversation)
• Know which location attracts what kind of people
• Weather
• Visit the location before the test
– (Ideally) around the same time
– Or go to locations you are familiar with
• Have a backup location

20. 2. Prepare for the unexpected

21. Tables, different kinds of tables…

25. These tables are not designed for
usability studies

26. Lesson 2: Prepare for the unexpected
• Visit the location before the sessions
…so that you’d notice things you’d need to prepare
for
• Prepare for:
– No/slow internet connection
– Power outlets
– Environment ambiance

27. 3. Recruiting / getting attention

30. Lesson 3: Recruiting & getting attention
• Make sure you are noticed by other people
– Large signs
– Tables
– Incentives
• Ideally, have one person sit at the table and
the other one talk to people passing by

31. 4. Interview

32. Warm up

33. “Am I doing the right thing?”
“Should I do this?”
“Did I miss something?”
“Sorry.”

34. Participants are more nervous and
uncertain in café studies

35. People are unprepared

36. Lesson 4: Interview
• Make extra effort to warm up participants
• Café study is still usability study
– Let participants know their rights
– No leading questions
– Observe, do not interrupt

37. 5.Taking notes

39. TABLES ARETOO SMALL

40. Lesson 5:Taking notes
• One person take care of one participant
– Interview AND take notes
• Take notes on paper, not laptop
• May need multiple tables
• Carefully plan what you put on the table

42. 6. Incentives/gifts

43. What works?
 Gift cards
 Company souvenirs
 Free t-shirts
 Free caps
 Free coffee
 Free candy bars

44. Lesson 6: Incentives/gifts
• (Almost) anything would work!
– Be aware of the bias brought into your study
• Bring more than you need
– You have little control over recruiting process

45. 7. Make things reusable

46. Lesson 7: Make things reusable
• Plan in advance
• Have small, weekly ux testing budget
• Use templates
– Plans, notes, reports, etc.
• Have a ux testing inventory
– Device(s)
– Signs
– Incentives (gift cards, souvenir, etc.)

47. One last thing…

48. Café studies cannot replace
traditional usability tests

49. Which is better?
Traditional UX study
• Can test the whole
workflow
• Controlled recruiting
process
• Key stakeholders can
observe
• Slower
• More expensive
Café (Guerrilla) study
• Focus on one feature
• Random participants
• Very hard for others to
observe
• Faster
• Much Cheaper

50. Café study +Traditional UX study

51. Summary
• Café studies are faster and cheaper than traditional
ones and are good add-ons to traditional UX studies
• When planning a café study:
– Carefully choose your location
– Be prepared for the unexpected
– Recruiting
– Warm up your participants and make them comfortable
– Take notes on printed wireframes
– Have extra gifts
– Make things reusable

52. Thank you
Jianqi Xing
jianqi.xing@gmail.com
@xjianqi
slideshare.net/xjianqi