Usability Testing Live!  Our presentation is a hit.

from Molly Emmings, Account Manager

on May 20, 2011

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In my eight years with Fredrickson, usability (a.k.a. user experience testing) has always held a special interest for me. It seems like such a “no-brainer” to me to spend a very minimal amount of time and budget – relative to the overall size and budget of many projects – to make darn sure that the users of the site/system/application will be able to do what they need to do or find what they need to find. When labels or language or the organization of information, etc. aren’t quite right, the time and money wasted via user frustration, lost customers, complaints around the water cooler, help desk time, etc. (the list goes on!) is a far bigger issue.

Our Fredrickson Intersect meeting on May 10 at the City of Roseville was dedicated to showing the process of usability testing in action. Our Director of Usability Services, John Wooden, came prepared with both a recording of a previous usability testing session and scenarios to do live testing with volunteers on a member’s website. It was quite the eye-opener for many who have not experienced it before. One member said, “I really liked last week’s session. I haven’t had any experience with usability testing (I’m ashamed to say) so I learned a lot. It was particularly interesting to watch the live volunteers.”

As is the case with any project or experience, when we’re “heads-down in it,” we don’t always see the reality of it as others might. Usability testing provides the irrefutable truth – real data – around whether something is really working for the users. Another member said, “I thought the presentation was GREAT. The live demo really illustrated how usability testing with real users doing real tasks sheds light on issues/problems site owners aren’t aware of. I kept wishing there were more developers from [our organization] there to see how important it is to get user feedback early and often.”

So, in my humble but somewhat experienced opinion, take Nike’s advice and Just Do It!

Here are a few resources where you can learn more:

• Here on the Fredrickson website (this link will take you to our recommended resources on usability, information architecture, and user interface design)
• Usability.gov

• Luke Wrobleski, Web Form Design

• Steve Krug’s books: Don’t Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy

As always, if you’d like us to bring an eye-opening presentation like this one into your organization, please .

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