What is the inadequacy of Focus Groups
What they say
What is the inadequacy of Phone Surveys
What you want to hear
Should we minimize distractions during usability testing?
It depends in the testing goals.
What is the inadequacy of Web Surveys
Closed ended questions
What is the inadequacy of Mystery Shopping
Focus on Customer service
What is the inadequacy of Self Reporting
Users don’t know if it’s “broken”
What is the inadequacy of Colleagues down the hall
Company biases
Field Studies Benefits
- Observation by skilled experts
- Interview actual users
- Observation of user workflow
- Identify design problems
- Discover hidden user needs
- Identify design opportunities
- Identify new features
- Identify new functionality
- Conduct in user setting
Usability Testing Benefits
- Observation by skilled experts
- Interview actual users
- Identify design problems
- Discover hidden user needs
- Identify design opportunities
- Identify new features
Is Usability research qualitative or quantitative?
It is largely qualitative, or driven by insight (why users don’t understand or why they are confused). Qualitative research follows different research rules to quantitative research and it is typical that sample size is low (i.e 15 or 20 participants)
Qualitative research follows different research rules to quantitative research and it is typical that sample size is [low or high]
low (i.e 15 or 20 participants)
The end result of usability testing is not statistical validity (the outcome of quantitative research) but…
the verification of insights and assumptions based on behavioral observation (the outcome of qualitative research).
How many users should you test with?
- You only need 8 -15 people for most (Formative) tests.
- Summative (statistical test 20 - 50+
- The number depends on your user types.
What does Jakob Nielsen mean by testing with 5 users?
5 users per segment
How many users do you test with if you are doing weekly UX testing, lean or agile UX.
3-5 users per week
Context is key for [desktop or mobile] testing
Mobile
e.g. If device in doctor’s office - test there.
Context is a ______ _______ issue
Field study
What type of research technique are Field studies?
Ethnographic - means you go out
What does Ethnographic mean?
Study of people
Why is context not important in usability research?
Because you are testing the usability unless it’s mobile.
- you can bring testers in and simulate a context
