Rocket Surgery Made Easy
‘A morning a month, that’s all we ask’
This means doing a round of testing each month on three users. On the testing day, three test are conducted in the morning which are debriefed over lunch. By the time lunch is finished, usability testing is complete for the month and what needs to be fixed is highlighted before the next month.
What do you test, and when do you test it?
Usability professionals will consistently agree on the fact that testing as early as possible within a project is the best way to ‘detect serious usability problems’ early in the development process, which will be much better than finding the isues further down the line (it will be less costly and much easier). Issues which are found too late sometimes can’t be corrected at all, due to issues being embedded into the site already.
‘The worst practice is the most common one: waiting for the test until the site is done and ready to launch’ – 31, chapter 4
During the design process, we are likely to have a better concept in our head than what has been coded or put to paper – but this alone should not be reason for people not to test the product. Moreover, knowing that the site is going to encounter changes should not detour from it being tested. It is likely that the user will pick up on the changes (that are already in the works for being edited) but the surprises are the bits of feedback which make the testing worthwhile.
Testing other people’s sites
A lot of value can be made from testing other sites. From the testing it should be discussed what worked well on the site (and what didn’t) as this can steer the way for how your site is created. Watching other people perform a similar task to what you’re hoping to create is a powerful tool! Moreover, I should also test wireframes and sketches to build a solid foundation to expand upon.
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