Design Thinking for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: Putting the Power of Design to Work by Beverly Rudkin Ingle

Author:Beverly Rudkin Ingle [Ingle, Beverly Rudkin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781430261810
Publisher: Apress
Published: 2013-10-27T14:00:00+00:00

Design and Conduct an Effective Usability Test

To effectively design your usability test, outline what tasks you want the participant to do and the information you want to glean from that action. Then, draft directions and/or questions for the participants that will yield that information. For example, you might instruct them to locate and purchase a particular product, ask them where on the site they would find more information about the business’s leadership team, or ask them to sign up for the newsletter.

Usability tests can be conducted in person by a moderator who guides the participants through the actions and observes the process. As with focus groups, you may want to record one or two participants, generally with the camera positioned over the participant’s shoulder with their hands, the keyboard, and the computer screen captured in the frame. Usability tests can also be conducted remotely via a survey format, although this isn’t as effective because you lose the opportunity for observation. In either case, at the end of the test, ask your participants to write a brief summary of their experiences, sharing any observations they have about functionality, navigation, and design.

Remember that at the beginning of this discussion, I pointed out that you need to consider your website as a prototype. Here’s why: You will discover new things that require site changes.

After testing, review the data for its relevancy and determine what changes need to be made to remove any deficiencies. Certainly you want to create the best possible online experience for your customer, so don’t cringe at the idea of revisions.

Tip If the revisions to your site were extensive after the initial usability test, conduct another one. If the revisions were minor, then let your timeline and budget dictate whether you will do another round of testing.

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