UX Testing For The Masses: Keep It Simple And Cost Effective

User experience design (UXD or UED) is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product. This nicely encapsulates what the design part is all about, but what about the other equally important facet of UX, the testing process? The former can be self-taught, at least to a degree. The latter can be considered as one of the more misunderstood, but ultimately necessary steps in UX design. It has to be effective and involve the most important people – your users/customers. For the UX guru-in-training, testing can be a difficult and overwhelming topic to approach initially, due to its sheer scale and the diverse directions it can take. This can sometimes be confusing and misleading, depending on which area you wish to focus on and what your professional background is. For the sake of this article, we’ll approach UX testing from the aspect of a web/app designer who wishes to extend their UI design skills and better understand the core User Centered Design (UCD) approach to an application that should take place before Photoshop or Axure are even powered up.

Understanding User Centered Design (UCD)

Before we proceed to testing, let’s start by explaining the basic concept behind UCD. UCD places the user first in the design and development cycle of an application/website. UCD is based around an understanding of the application’s environment, tasks, and its users. It then addresses the complete user experience as a whole. What this basically means is that the entire design process involves real users throughout, in order to ensure the end product meets its initial brief requirement as fully as possible. To sum up the process in its most basic form (there are many variations of UCD), the following phases are as follows:

·         Context of use: Identify who will use the product and what they will use it for, and under what conditions they intend to use it.

·         Requirements: Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the product to be successful.

·         Design solutions: This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a rough concept to a complete design through a number of iterations.

·         Evaluation of designs: Ideally through usability testing with actual users. This step is just as important for UCD as quality testing is to good software development.

Some of the techniques and methods used in UCD are:

Card Sorting

Card sorting can offer useful insight at the UX Design/Design stage. Card sorting involves participants being given an unsorted group of cards, each card has a statement on it relating to a page or section of the website. The participants are then asked to sort the cards into groups and name them.

Card sorting is a simple and effective way of testing your UX designs on a range of different subjects.

This is usually a great way of learning what your website navigation and content structure should look like, and how they should work in a way that’s logical to your intended user base.

Usability Testing Session

A usability testing session involves collecting data from a group as they use the website/interactive prototypes. It usually comes at a relatively high cost, because it involves a lot of human interaction and legwork.

What does a usability testing session look like? People are invited to attend a session during which they will be asked to perform a series of tasks on the website, while you or the moderator takes notes. The user will often be asked to fill in a questionnaire at the end of the test, to ascertain how difficult it was to perform certain tasks, such as buy a product on an e-commerce site from a specific category page and proceed to checkout.

This type of testing is usually reserved for high-end interactive prototypes or interactive wireframes. It is a great way of gathering data on the most common issues real-world users will encounter.

Focus Groups

Focus group testing is more or less self-explanatory. It involves asking focus group members (which could be site users or the intended target audience) a series of questions related to the website, and being encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings on different related areas of the site design/wireframes.

UX tests involving user groups and questionnaires can cover a broad demographic, but both come with trade-offs.

It’s normally a good idea to have an experienced moderator during such a group session to ensure accurate notes are taken. Additionally, a good moderator should be able to identify the telltale signs of groupthink, and make sure that the whole process is not negatively affected by group dynamics.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires can be a great way of generating invaluable solid statistical data – providing the right questions are asked.

A questionnaire can be particularly useful when you want to collect a much more varied cross-section of data than could be achieved through a small focus group. It can also be argued that people tend to be more honest without the immediate pressure of being in a small user group.

The risk of groupthink is averted, so individuals will make their own decisions.

Testing on a Tight Budget or Timescale

Don’t worry, none of these processes are set in stone. In case you are forced to operate on a tight budget or cut corners to meet a hard deadline, there are ways of streamlining the process without sacrificing too much.

If you have to UX test on a tight budget or on short notice, you will have to cut corners and think outside the box.

For example, you could organize part of these processes differently, or merge them together and use your friends and family as test subjects if needs be. What is important is that you are actively seeking involvement, feedback, and constructive criticism on the processes you design from other people.

If your budget and schedule won’t allow you to do everything you had in mind, you need to think outside the box and come up with new ways of obtaining usable test results. While this approach involves some tradeoffs, you should still be able to get a lot of actionable information from your test subjects.

UX Testing Methods for Beginners

So you’ve researched, planned, strategized and implemented a working website/landing page/app. But how do you know it is actually fulfilling its potential and justifying all the hours of research? All those questionnaires and card sorting, all your effort and money spent? How do we quantify the results of UX testing and research? Here are a few useful services that are essential for UX testing at all levels. Some of these services are free, while others are not. Either way, the following tools are invaluable for gathering real data on your website.

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg allows you to find out how users are using your website and where they are clicking. The service is not free but offers a great 30-day free trial. If your piggy bank is empty and you’re running out of time, you can at least use the trial period to polish one project.

In my opinion, it is well worth signing up and trying a few websites to get great insight into what clients are doing on your website. Crazy Egg utilizes heatmaps to show you where all the action takes place on your site, allowing you to find out what works and what doesn’t.

Heatmaps tend to be an invaluable addition to the UX design process. In this context, we are talking aboutmousetracking heatmaps rather than eyetracking heatmaps, which are far more advanced and not as easy to come by. Most designers, especially freelancers and designers working for small businesses with limited budgets, are likely to be restricted to moustracking heatmaps. While eyetracking heatmaps can give a lot more insight into how users perceive your site before they take action, they simply aren’t an option for most designers and developers.

Optimizely

Optimizely allows you to conduct effective and in-depth A/B testing, yet it’s relatively easy to use.

A/B testing involves comparing two versions of a page to find out which one performs better. Two pages are shown to similar visitors at the same time, and the page with the better conversion rate is the more effective page.

A/B testing can sometimes mean the difference between a campaign’s failure and success.

The downside? Optimizely is not free, although you can use the Starter plan free of charge. However, this free plan lacks a lot of features compared to the Enterprise plan. Pricing may be a problem for independent designers and small outfits.

Google Analytics

A service that hardly needs an introduction, Google Analytics is one of the most in-depth tools available and is currently the most widely used web analytics service in the world. In a nutshell, Google Analytics allows you to do click testing and drop off points.

Integrated with Adwords, it allows you to track landing page conversions (from ad clicks) and view in-depth information about your website’s traffic.

Google is constantly improving the service and tends to add new features on a regular basis. For example, it recently introduced Data Studio 360, which is an elaborate data visualization and reporting platform designed for enterprise users. It was soon joined by a free version of Data Studio, designed for individuals and small companies.

Measuring Success

Measuring Success

With an effective UCD approach, all results from the above tools and approaches will allow you to set realistic goals to improve your website and user experience. Acting on the feedback from drop-offs, user complaints, and A/B testing can lead to:

·         Increased website traffic.

·         Increased sales/performance.

·         Increased return visitors.

·         Improved usability and ease of use of your website.

·         Reduced future development costs.

Go full circle with your UX tests. Incorporate your findings in your project and re-test when possible.

Truly effective websites are not only concerned with how easy it is to perform tasks accurately and quickly, but also how enjoyable the user experience is. A good user experience should encourage return business.

With website development, you rarely (if ever) get it right first time around. That’s why it’s vital to set aside time and resources for research and subsequent testing. While both require planning and resources, they can make a big difference on the outcome of your project, and therefore tend to be a worthwhile investment.

Taking Things a Step Further

There has been much written over the last decade or so about the importance of UX testing and usability, and it can be a difficult subject.

If you are just getting started, I would definitely recommend attending a seminar or course in your area (hopefully your employer will see the value and can pay for it!). Thankfully, as interest in UX is picking up, there is also an increasing number of great free resources, and many of them are geared towards the beginner UX designer.

UX Testing Websites and Blogs

Here are a few valuable online sources of information and inspiration:

·         UserTesting

·         The Usability Post

·         UX Booth

·         UX Magazine

·         UX Apprentice

·         MeasuringU

·         Designmodo

·         UX Myths

These resources are more than sufficient to get you started, but if you prefer a more hands-on approach, UX courses and seminars are a good place to take your training to the next level. Naturally, real world projects are the ultimate crucible. They will help you polish your skills and gain a much better understanding of the process from start to finish, and allow you to streamline your UX testing to conserve time and money while obtaining useful results.

This article is originally posted here. 

About Author

RUARIDH CURRIE

Wireframing Basics - Part 2

In Wireframing Basics - Part 1 we have seen, wireframes, types of wireframes, 5 Planes of UX etc.In this article we will look at some important Principles before starting wireframing work.

1. F-Shape pattern

How people read on Web; they don’t. – Jacob Nielsen

• People SCAN web pages
• The F-Pattern describes the most common user eye-scanning patterns when it comes to blocks of content.

Note points:

• Make webpage text easy for users to scan.
• Use bold headings and subheadings.
• Use bullet lists when you can to break up content. Bullets are also easy to scan.
• Priorities & place the content in hierarchy

2. Call to Action

‘Call to action’ are buttons or actions for most important or primary tasks on website.

‘Call to action’ helps in understanding that

• End user is able to understand what next he/she can do
• Where each click will lead them

Make Call to Action effective by:

• Choosing end user familiar words 
• rather than business jargons
• Placement
• Color
• Size
• Minimizing counts

Examples:

3. Affordance

• According to Norman (1988) an affordance is the design aspect of an object which suggest how the object should be used; a visual clue to its function and use. 
• Good designs are intuitive and good affordance helps in making design intuitive.

Example:

Affordance in Physical world

Affordance in digital, ex.  Buttons, Text fields

<< Wireframing Basics - Part 1                          Wireframing Basics - Part 3 >>

About Author:

Abhishek Jain

6 most often used User Research techniques

I find it amazing how often very similar problems require notably different approaches in order to be solved successfully. So far I’ve found this holds true for just about anything in life and, by extension, usability research as well.

Usability research is all about observing and understanding user behaviors, needs and methodologies. Mike Kuniaysky says that it is “the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience.”

It follows that Usability specialists are problem solvers with many tools (research techniques) at their disposal. I bring you a breakdown of some of the most commonly used user research approaches;

Usability Testing

Usability Testing is a research technique which helps us evaluate a product or service by testing it on its representative users. In order to eliminate outside disturbances and allow the researcher to better take notes of the entire process, it is preferably done in a controlled environment such as a lab, but can also be done remotely or in a room where we can ensure no disturbances or distractions. Often it is filmed or videotaped, but doing so is not a requirement as long as someone is closely observing the user and taking notes.

The goal of Usability Testing is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and to determine the participants’ satisfaction level with the product or service we are testing.

In order to achieve that, we measure various factors such as time needed to perform tasks, error and success rates, preference for alternative solutions and, of course, users’ subjective level of satisfaction.

A/B Testing

Sometimes also called “multivariate testing,” “live testing,” or “bucket testing”, it is perhaps the most straightforward form of testing.
A/B Testing is merely comparing effectiveness of two different versions of the same design or product by launching them both under similar circumstances.

In context of web pages, A/B Testing would mean launching two different versions of the same web site at the same time. The goal here is to see which version of the web page (A or B, with A being the control version and B being the variation) ends up giving us a higher conversion rate.

Quantitative Survey

A Quantitative Survey is a survey or a questionnaire distributed to a large number of participants; usually a representative sample of our target market, in order to hear their opinions strictly on a subject we are testing and need input on.

It is important that the questions in this type of a survey are closed, meaning that the respondents are choosing from specific selection of answers and are not given an opportunity to expand or elaborate on their responses.

Web Analytics

Used as tools for business and market research, Web Analytics help us assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Web Analytics are done by collecting, measuring, analyzing and reporting on various web data obtained by web servers, tracking cookies and so on.

By obtaining data from a large number of users we can highlight patterns in navigation and user types as well as focus on answering specific questions such as “How many people visited the site?”, “How many of these visits were unique visitors?”, “How did they come to the site?”, “How long did they stay and how much time did they spend on each particular part of our site?”, “Which keywords did they use in their search which brought them to the site?”, “What keywords did they search with on the sites’ search engine?”, “How does the day of the week or a time of a day affect user habits?” and many, many more.

When performing web analytics we use various software to collect a large amount of data, but it is up to a Usability Specialist to interpret the data and come to concrete conclusions and ideas on how to utilize the data we’ve collected in order to improve the UX.

Focus Groups

Using a Focus Group, a Usability Specialist will lead a moderated discussion with 4 to 12 participants. This discussion will be lead in a controlled environment- just like a Usability Testing session.

The goal of a Focus Group is to gain verbal and written feedback through discussion and exercises and to explore preferences (and reasons for those preferences) among different solutions.

Although Focus Groups are definitely a powerful tool when it comes to system development they are never used as an only source of usability data.

This is because the feedback we receive from Focus Groups is subjective, and therefore should be taken with a grain of salt- especially in cases where the users are asked to describe how they perform activities which span many days or weeks.

Hence, we do not use Focus Groups to assess interaction styles or design usability, but to discover what the users want from the system they are using.

Sometimes what we, the developers, want to give the users isn’t what the users actually need from our websites and apps and this is why Focus Groups are a valuable source of information; they help us align our views with the views and needs of our average user.

Central Location Test

A Central Location Test (or interview) employs both quantitative and qualitative research techniques, as well as visual techniques such as monitoring the respondents’ eye movements and testing for degree of recall of particular elements of a website, app or a product.

In a controlled environment, groups of 15 to 50 people are shown demos or allowed to use products before being interviewed or taking a survey to measure their grasp of the concept, the appeal of various features and the desirability of the product.

CLT is the most suitable method for testing concepts, new or modified products or packaging, advertising effectiveness and sensory research.

References : View Original link to article

About Author:

Ines Anić (@i_anic) is a Content and Administrative Associate at UX Passion, where she writes about UX, UI, design and social media management. She is passionate about UX, Usability, design and video games; and curious about technology, gadgets, IT and the world of startups. Ines is looking forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn and Twitter!