5 rules of user testing
Good Morning Planet!
The Five Rules of User Experience Testing are:
1. Make'm talk. I dare you to hurt my feelings. Speak damnit! Restate what they say if need be. A weak audio cue on tape = nothing so get them to talk. Don't let them be shy. Voice your opinion. ROAR for the crowd.
2. Simplicity is key. We could do x, y, z, h and r. But what we really need to do is have a conversation, so have one. Have that conversation and keep the hairy whims of wow we could do everything out of the picture. Know when you are doing too much. See that you are doing too much before doing too much arrives on the scene. Understand that if you are doing too much odds are you have alot of much and useless data.
3. Plan. Plan for the worst. Research is alive because people are alive. Anything can happen and typically will when you least expect it. If you got scenario A down pat, thats fine, what about plan B? Where does the user live? Wheres that experience live? How do you expect to get that shot, record that conversation, climb up that hill, find that nugget? And what about you? A exhausted researcher gets little data. Drink yer water, stay fit, get your rest. What about capture? What works best for what you are doing? Its important to get what you can in the most efficient way possible. So if that means two people go out into the field vs one, so be it. If that means you use tablets instead of laptops, so be it. Audio, Video what are you doing, grab it, and plan, plan for those batteries to die on you, plan for the sky falling cause it can and will when you least expect it.
4. Write it down! Record, do not press pause. The moment just expired did you capture it? Your goal is to get good data, 8:21am on Feb. 25th just occured, it will never be back again. What do you have to show for that instance in time? Did you take notes? How do you take good notes? Whats involved in taking good notes? Is it technology, is the old school pen and paper, know what works for the situation you are in. Whatever you do, you better have notes. Speed up the qualitative data process. Everything on audio and video tape is good in the sense you captured the moment, but bad in the sense that to get to the nuggets of info you want to get to - you have to relive it. Refine that process. Capture life but auto notate as you go. Timecodes. Timecodes can save the world when it comes to research. It can shave 40hrs off your analysis time. Better yet, timecodes and annotation of what is occuring in real time. Active timecodes that have meaning, values of what is happening, a question, a design idea, a location tag, a descriptor, we're talkin tags for people. Tag it all. And get a system down to do it in whatever instance of research experience you are in.
5. Don't Panic! Its not your fault. Shit happens. Stuff breaks. Maintain calm. You can't save the planet, you can't make people talk.. well not all the times. You can't plan for every possible snafu. Some times its complicated, don't sweat the small stuff. Stay focused. Be willing to fail. Embrace failure and learn from it. Don't ever feel beaten. Feel charged, feel energy, feel the possiblity that you can do it better. Be posititve. Walk the path and be willing to take it all in. And remember... Get them to talk!