- Welcome to this two-part video checklist
for running a usability study.
In this video, I'm going to cover
a 10 point checklist for preparing for a usability test.
Step number one.
Decide what you'd like to test
and draft your research questions.
This activity can be done with your team.
Decide what you'd like to know
and which part of the design you'd like your users to use
and give you feedback on.
For example, maybe you're working on updating
some navigation and you'd like to know if people can easily
find content by using this new navigation.
Step number two.
Decide who you need to recruit for your study.
Maybe you need a mix of people.
Some people who are familiar with the current design
and others who are new to the design.
Or maybe you're going to focus
on recruiting a specific persona
for the next round of testing.
In this step it helps to make a list of inclusion
and exclusion criteria.
For example, an exclusion criterion
might be someone who works
in user experience or knows too much about the design.
Step number three.
Create a screener questionnaire.
To ensure we recruit the right people
and not just people who want to participate in our study,
we'll want to devise a questionnaire
to screen out people who don't qualify for the study.
Our screener questionnaire may include
some distracter questions or options
so we don't give away who we're looking for.
Step number four.
Create a consent form.
Whenever we conduct any research study
it's important that people who participate
in our research understand what the study is about
and can make an informed choice about whether to take part.
The consent form should contain details of the study,
such as whether there will be people observing the session,
whether the session will be recorded,
and what participants will be asked to do
during the session, and so on.
Step number five.
Write tasks for your usability study.
Tasks are what we give the user to direct their attention
on the design.
We may have 5 to 10 tasks for a one hour session.
The number of tasks you will have for your session
will depend on how long your session is
and how involved each task is.
Some tasks may only take a minute.
Other tasks may take 10 minutes or more.
Step number six.
Send your reminder emails.
It's a good idea to remind participants about the session,
especially if you've recruited them
a week or more in advance.
You can also send any important study information
in this email, such as what participants might need
for the session and whether there'll be any observers
or recordings being made during the session.
Step number seven. Test your design.
If you're using a prototype
or testing a non-production environment,
it's important to make sure everything works as it should.
Otherwise, if things go wrong,
it might be difficult to test your tasks properly
and you'll lose precious time in the session
trying to resolve technical issues.
To test your design, run through all of your tasks
and the relevant screens and functionality
to see whether there are any issues.
You may want test across browsers and devices.
If you're going to be testing on mobile,
make sure to test your design on a mobile device.
Step eight, consider running a pilot study.
If you're running a large study
or you have limited time to recruit further users,
consider running a pilot test
to make sure your tasks are understood
and that you can get through the tasks in the allotted time.
If not, consider prioritizing your tasks
or setting a time cap for some tasks,
so you know when to stop the participant
if they spent long enough attempting a particular task.
Step nine, prepare any observers.
If you have observers joining your session,
it's a good idea to tell them or remind them
of basic observer etiquette.
For example, they should arrive to the session in good time
and not interrupt.
You should also share with them your plan
to collect any questions from them.
For example, maybe you'll invite them
to send their questions through a private chat channel
for you to ask at the end of the session.
You might also want your observers to take notes for you.
If so, you might need to provide a template
for them to take notes in
and perhaps some instructions on how to take helpful notes.
Step 10, gather all of your materials
and information you need for the study
and condense it into a facilitator guide.
The facilitator guide usually includes
the intro script you'll deliver
at the beginning of the session,
the tasks you will give your participant,
and the questions you want to ask
after each task or at the end of the session.
You might also have some fake data or credentials
that you will need to share with participants
during the test,
or perhaps a checklist of things
that you need to remember to do.
For example, making sure you gather their consent,
press record, or ask the user
to set up screen sharing if relevant.
That's it; after these 10 steps,
you should be ready to conduct your own usability study.
Good luck.