Usability Testing, Quick and Insightful
Jun
16
After a recent notification from the Institutional Review Board that usability testing of websites would not need to be reviewed, we were fortunate enough to line up a terrific webinar from Dana Chisnell, co-author of “Handbook of Usability Testing, Second Edition” on June 6th.
The webinar focused on doing stripped down usability tests that provide much of the same helpful information as a fully developed usability test. There were some terrific takeaways, including:
- Opportunities for testing are everywhere. If your tests are informal, the locations can also be informal. Dana mentioned places such as coffee shops, cafeterias and airplanes as great places to administer testing.
- Participants are plentiful. Dana mentioned several examples of people that you can recruit as participants and places to find them - coworkers, friends & family, online social networks, the list goes on.
- Use what you have. If you only have time for testing one or two tasks, that’s fine. As long as the tests are organized well, they can be effective.
- Planning is important. You should know what and why you are testing and what you will do with the findings. The more specific the planning, the more effective your test will be.
We have presentation slides and a webinar recording (WMV) available for those interested in getting more information. Try some tests out for yourself and let us know how they turn out!
Leave a Reply