Usability testing for beginners: 22 simple tips for a successful usability test

Usability testing is arguably the one most important tool of all your user research efforts. As Steve Krug states in his brilliant book “Rocket surgery made easy”, even fifteen minutes of an informal usability test can bring positive results and improve your product significantly.

That having been said, I do recommend that you test as often as you possibly can. (As long as you have a clear goal for your usability test and keep it on point and focused).

Usability tests might seem overwhelming and scary if you haven’t done a lot of them yet. In reality, they are easier to conduct than you think and they are a lot of fun. Trust me: not only is usability testing totally worth it - they are crucially important and bring tons of value. Here are a few basic things to keep in mind, to make sure you get the most out of your usability test.

Have a clear goal in mind

Careful preparation is the key to success (especially if you are just starting out with your usability tests). First and foremost, you have to define your goals. Have a clear question in mind. What are you trying to find out? Are your users dropping off at a certain point? Do people need that feature that you really wanted to implement? Why are the users not clicking that very important button? Where do your users have difficulties? Why do they get frustrated? Having a well-defined question will help you see your answers very clearly. If I had to give you only one piece of advice regarding usability testing, it would be “Define your goals”.
Don’t test everything - keep it focused

It’s important to keep your usability testing focused on your predefined research goals. Keep your main question in mind and let it guide you. You may have secondary questions that you want answered but they don’t need to be brought into this particular usability session. Be disciplined and pragmatic. You can learn a lot by focusing on a narrow set of tasks. Plan to have multiple usability testing sessions in the future and you will be less tempted to test everything at once.
Write a script

A usability testing session is not the time to be spontaneous. So, it is very important to create a good usability testing script.

A usability testing moderator has a lot on their plate. They need to be able to keep the conversation going, help users relax, ask good questions, observe the user carefully, keep things on track, and steer the conversation in the right direction. All at the same time! It may be very hard to play things by ear: few people can think of good questions and tasks on the fly (especially if they are just starting out). In addition, unexpected things can happen during the test: users may get stuck or do something that you didn’t know they would. You need a guide to keep you on track.

On a high level a usability testing script would give an overall structure to your test, and contain your pre-defined goals, tasks to be completed, and questions to ask. (You can learn more about how to write a basic usability testing script here).

Bonus tip: If you are just starting out, don’t be afraid to read from your usability testing script. Your first or second usability test is not the time to improvise. Or course, there is a risk that you will sound stiff and unnatural. Don’t worry about it - that’s totally fine. It is better to sound like a robot by reading verbatim than to forget to ask a critical question, miss an important point or add unimportant fluff and waste time. Don’t worry: very soon you will know your script so well that you will be able to easily deviate from it and improvise.
Rehearse!

Your first usability test may seem very intimidating. You will be talking to a real customer. Other colleagues may be present in the room (more on this later). Your session may be recorded. You will probably be sharing the recording with your team and the stakeholders. So, you want to make sure that you get it as right as you possibly can. Well before the testing session, study your script, rehearse the session in front of a mirror or with family members and maybe some colleagues. You may even want to record yourself to see how you sound. Practicing your script will ensure that your predefined tasks and questions make sense. It will also help you feel comfortable going through the script and make sure that you ask the right questions at the right times. The more you rehearse the smoother the test will run.
Know your product

Conducting a usability test without knowing what you are testing is not fun. Not knowing the product you are testing will make you uncomfortable, nervous and stressed and will probably not bring sufficient results. Make sure you know the software/website/application inside and out. Use it as much as possible before your test, play around with the features, go over the flow you are testing several times. If you know the product you are testing well, it will be easy to guide the testing session efficiently and confidently.
Invite a note taker

As mentioned previously, all you need for a basic usability test is one participant and one moderator (usually a UX Designer or UX Researcher). While it is perfectly possible for one person to guide the course of the test, it may get challenging to be responsible for so many things simultaneously. Asking questions, holding a conversation with the participant, observing their reactions and making notes all at the same time is a lot. That is why having an additional person in the room to observe the user and make notes can be highly beneficial.

Taking good notes is not as simple as it may seem and takes a good amount of time and effort. So, having a note taker in the room will help the moderator focus solely on talking to the user without getting themselves and the participant distracted.
Make good notes

How to make high-quality notes in during user research deserves a separate blog post. However, taking good notes is so important that I can’t not mention it here. Whatever research method you are using, you will need to take notes of your key findings and insights (during your actual research process or afterwards, while reviewing or listening to the recordings of your testing sessions).

Note taking is an important skill that any user research professional must master. Taking good notes might seem simple. On the contrary, it is a challenging task that needs a lot of practice. But, like with everything else in life, the more you do it, the better at it you become and the easier it gets.

A good note is concise and has a good amount of essential details. Make sure your note gives enough context. Don’t just say “User couldn’t find the email field”. A more descriptive note would say: “User couldn’t find the email field when trying to sign in on the home page”. The latter note gives enough detail on what happened, to what element, on what page while still being concise. Ask yourself: “Will I understand what this note is about if I look at it a few months from now?” Or: “If someone on the team has to review my notes, will they understand them, even though they didn’t write them?” The answer to both of these questions should be a definite “yes”.
Don’t have too many people in the room

usability testing session is being recorded and you get a chance to o

While one or two additional people can sit in

but too many people is not recommended. All you need is an extra monitor so that extra people can watch closely without leaning over the user’s shoulder.

**Try to get away with minimal equipment **
Record the session

** **You should always aim at having your usability session recorded, but if you are the only person guiding and observing the test - recording the session is a must! By recording the session you will make your life much easier. During the actual test you will be able to focus on talking to the participant and asking them the right questions. Afterwards you will have your recording to analyze the participant’s facial expressions and reactions and make detailed notes. You will also be able to share your re . )

Test with the right participants

Finding users

One of the reasons companies don’t do usability testing is, they don’t know where to find users/customers and how to approach them.

Options for users:

Colleagues (easiest but produces the worst data, they are not the target audience. They know too much about the business). So: don’t do it!

Friends and family: send an email to colleagues and ask if anyone has friends or family that would be available at this time for 1 hour and would be happy to accept a $50 dollar gratuity for their time. This is much better, because these people are outsiders, but not perfect. They may know you or the industry.

Do it yourself. (There is usually a database of customers. Some of them are on the email list to receive marketing messages. This is your source. Send out email or call and explain what/when/why you are doing and what they will get out of it. It is not difficult but very time consuming. You not only have to find 5 people but also have to coordinate dates and times. It is a lot of pain, so better to hire professional recruiters to do it).

Professional market research recruiters anywhere in the world. You can use them to locate users to do your usability testing. Of course it costs some money to use recruiters but it is worth it. It saves time. Great value for money.
Consent forms

Another important thing is to ask for permission to record the sessions and get that consent in writing. It has always been important but especially now in the era of the GDPR. (The EU General Data Protection Regulation has fundamentally transformed how businesses handle personal data. Any company that does not follow these new norms face severe fines).

The consent form usually asks for permission to record the session for a particular purpose (ex. sharing clips with your team/colleagues/clients). For this design course you will need to explain that the video recordings will be used for sharing with the UX Design Institute and for use in your portfolio.

It is a good idea to let people know that the sessions will be recorded before you recruit them so there are no surprises. Then ask them to read the consent form and to sign it before the session.
**Preface with an introduction **

** **Introduction (you welcome and explain what is going on and what the purpose of the test is)

**Conduct a short informal user interview **

Your usability test participants may be a little nervous in the beginning of your usability test. This may interfere with the results if you jump straight into testing. Chatting with your participants in an informal manner before the actual test starts will, at the very minimum, help them relax. Most importantly (if you know how to ask good questions, you will learn about their life, personality, context in which they , goals, desires, frustrations, problems that your product is trying to solve).

Interview (it is useful to double up because a usability test is a great opportunity to talk to your customers and observe them using your product)
**Ask good questions **

** **Ask the right type of questions (questions and the type of questions can have a big impact on your research. So you need to concentrate hard and ask the right ones and avoid the wrong ones).

Avoid bad questions

Direct yes/know closed questions (Did you notice the advertisements on the right?) Just because you asked, you drew their attention to them and compromised the data. => Instead what and why questions, ask it in a round-about way: What are you looking at? What are you looking for?

Leading questions: Would you prefer the times to be included? (If you ask them, they will say yes) => instead approach it in a round-about way: What information do you need to continue? Why is that important? (We can draw out that information without biasing the user).

Future-based/hypothetical questions (pointless, people are not good at predicting the future): If you had a discount, would you use it? => Instead we need to find out how the software is working now and what we need to fix. So get them to complete the task in the here and now: Show me how you would book the flight. Don’t waste time asking them about their potential behaviours in the possible future.

Design-related questions: What would make this screen better? What do you think of the colors? How would you arrange the icons? All you will get are answers about topics that most people don’t have strong opinions about. Design is our job, what we are doing now isn’t design. We are doing research. We need to understand the problem and later based on the data we found, we can design a solution. => Instead keep the questions focused on what the problems are now: Show me how you would book the flight. And the design will work itself out.
Mention that you didn’t design the product
Tell them you are not testing them, you are testing the software
Ask them to talk you through what they are doing/thinking/looking for
Listen/observe your user carefully
Don’t talk a lot
Don’t give them hints or tell them what to do

Never tell users what to do. Quite a difficult thing to do (battling human nature and politeness). If you see them struggling - you are inclined to help. But avoid it. We want to see what the users are doing. If they go the wrong route, if they are struggling - you just have to let them do it and see what happens. The only exception is when they are panicking or if you’ve explored the problem enough. Then you can take control of the software momentarily and help them get back on track.

Never take control of the mouse (you can do that only when you are between the tasks or want to reset the page. During the task the user is in control).

Document your findings

So you just gave a task to your usability test participant and they are stuck. It might feel tempting to help them out, to show them that button they are looking for. Don’t! The whole purpose of your interview is to uncover problems (which, judging by their inability to complete your task, you have found!). Let them figure it out. And only after they tried on their own, is it ok to modify or change the task.


People are afraid of looking bad, stupid, incompetent. It is important that you mention that if they make mistakes, it is not their fault it’s the software’s fault. In fact, the more mistakes they make - the better.

What to test

**What to test?**


If you don’t have the software yet that needs to be tested, what do you test? But if you are developing something new it is even more important to test, well before your product is finalized.


Existing product:

Current version (anything you want to add needs to be added to a high quality product)
Prototype (if planning to add a new version or additional features). Even if the prototype isn’t interactive/clickable there is a lot you can learn from testing a prototype: software flow, assess mental models, how they would go about completing tasks, or what they think about certain titles or link names.
Competitors (get people to complete the same tasks on your software and then on the competitor products and see how the experience compares.
Peers in other markets/industries (even if they are not direct competitors, perhaps same products based in other countries or products from similar industries).

New products/startups (product doesn’t exist or hasn’t been developed yet):
Competitors

Peers in other markets/industries

  (test similar products as soon as possible, ideally before you start designing. That will help you learn the most important things: user goals, behaviours and context. You will learn the current problems and how well the current software is able to solve them. It is a great source of not only design data but also competitors’ data too).

Prototype (even if not interactive, you can still learn and test a lot: flows, mental models, how people go about completing tasks).

It is all critical information that we need to have before you finalize your designs.

When to test

**When to test?**


Test early, test often throughout any product development lifecycle.


<span style="text-decoration:underline;">Design process:</span>

Research (taking time to understand the problem your product is trying to solve) => Usability Testing is critical at this point. It is the best way to discover the goals, behaviours and context of your users and assess how well your or competitor software is solving their problems. It is true for ANY design project. Usability testing needs to be done upfront.
Design (where we begin to solve the problem)
Prototype (before we commit to building we build a prototype - some clickable wireframes or graphic designs or some code that we are prepared to through away. The whole point of creating a prototype is to test it with users and see if it actually does solve the problem, how well it solves it and what needs to be fixed before we commit money and resources and start building the solution. Usability testing is the whole purpose of creating a prototype.
Build
Test (before it goes live QA testing needs to be done and this is another opportunity for a final round of usability testing. This is just a sanity check, because it is usually too late to make any changes at this point unless we come across a complete show stopper. At this point usability testing is a final assessment before the product is released to customers. If there are any issues, at least we will be aware and will know what they are and will be able to deal with them from a customer service perspective and we can put them on in backlog so that they can be the first things we can fix after launch.

So at different points of the development cycle usability testing is used for three different purposes:
Research technique that helps us understand the problem (during research)
Design technique that helps validate the solution (during prototyping)
Sanity check

So usability testing is a versatile research technique. You need to conduct usability testing at the beginning, in the middle and before the end of your project. If you follow this rule, it will transform the quality of the software you produce.