You want to see your work have as much impact as possible. You’re doing everything you can to turn your brilliant ideas into a mega-successful reality. But how do you know if you’re on track?
You’ll want to regularly check that you’re building something that your market truly wants. A so-called “market fit” is vital for your success and anything else is a waste of your time.
Discovering parts of your product that need tweaking is normal. And as your product develops, it’ll be easier and cheaper to start making any necessary changes while you are in the design phase instead of waiting to see what happens when you finally launch.
Usability tests are one of the most cost effective, quickest, and reliable ways of checking your product market fit. And they can easily be used with any type of software or hardware product.
Each test will help you get a clear sense of your customer’s usability experience. Specifically, you’ll find out about their perceived value (Is this something they will pay to acquire?), and ease-of-use. Low perceived value or poor ease-of-use are clear signals you have some work to do.
The basics of usability testing
- Find people who fit your target customer segment(s).
- Work with one person at a time and give them tasks to do that are core to your product.
- Watch each person’s actions closely as they attempt to complete the tasks. (Do not give them any hints or guidance about how to use your product.)
- Encourage them to “think aloud” as they work with your product and to tell you about the experience they’re having — good and bad.
Pay attention to the trends that emerge and take notes. Although opinions from friends and family are nice, it’s the feedback from strangers and potential customers that count if you’re after “hockey-stick” scale.
Debunking 4 common myths
1. Myth: “We don’t have time to test”
Reality: The earlier you are in your product design process, the easier and less costly it will be to make changes.
Solution: All it takes is some diligent planning to set firm dates for conducting a test and recruiting a pool of “vetted participants” in advance. There is no reason why a small test (say three participants with 45 minute interviews) can’t be carried out once a week with negligible overall impact on your timelines.
2. Myth: “The product’s not ready” or “We only have some rough mockups”.
Reality: You can test anything you have — whether it’s functioning or not.
Solution: As you think about the various parts of your product, you will typically generate some or all of the following — sketches, wireframes, flow sequences, semi-functioning prototype concepts. Any of these can be used to present ideas to your customers and to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. With tools like Keynotopia, Invision, and Axure, you can quickly create dynamic prototypes that are perfect for testing.
3. Myth: “We don’t need to test in-person. We’re already measuring what people are doing.”
Reality: Analytics are valuable, but they only provide part of the picture for how your product is doing. For example, you might notice that customers become significantly less active after their third visit. While this is important to know, metrics can’t tell you why this is happening.
Solution: Usability testing can provide the “why”. By combining usability testing and analytics, you’ll get the best of both worlds. One company unlocked $300 million in additional sales from doing just this.
4. Myth: “It will cost too much.”
Reality: You probably have everything you need already, such as a computer, mouse, microphone, Internet connection, and webcam. Your only out-of-pocket cost will be what you pay your test participants. The worst case scenario is that you end up paying out a few hundred dollars as you develop your product. It’s a small price to know whether or not your customers think you’re creating something amazing.
Solution: Your test participants must match, or be close, to your target market profiles. If you can find them in your community, you might be able to get their input for free. Be gracious and offer to buy them lunch. But as your product matures, you will want to bring in outsiders. They’ll give you honest feedback, and it won’t break the bank.
10 Tips For Running Your Own Tests
You don’t need to be a professional usability expert to get value from performing your own usability tests. For those of you who want to test your product, here are 10 tips that will help you get the most from your interviews.
1. Be clear and specific about your test objectives. A statement like, “What can we do to sell more products?” is not specific enough because they won’t give you actionable feedback for making design enhancements or modifications.
Instead, craft statements that you will be able to say at the end of the research that are true or false. For example: “Can new site visitors locate the product buy button?” or “Do the filter options allow customers to find a tent that meets their needs?”
2. Finding the right people to test
When you are looking for people to test, make sure they fit your target audience. For example, you might want to speak with a few wine lovers and some novices. Don’t ask subjective questions such as “What kind of wine drinker are you?”
Focus on their behavior and create questions that would indicate their proficiency. Here are some sample questions: Have you bought any wine in the last 60 days? If yes, how many bottles have you bought? Based on the number you could assign a proficiency level. 10 or more = wine lover, 1 or 2 = novice. This is a more factual approach.
3. Greeting the test participant warmly
Whenever you meet a test participant, greet them warmly. Don’t be overly friendly, but smile and look them in the eye as you shake their hand. This will get the session off to a good start, and you’ll get more out of the test because the participant will feel like you are truly interested in them.
4. Never explain how your product works
You won’t be there when it’s being used in real life. It must “speak for itself”.
5. Answer questions with questions
“Should I go here?” “Did I do that correctly?” “What did others think about this?
These are some of the more common participant questions. It’s not your job to let them know. Your focus should be on their thoughts and observing what they do. The simplest way to counter these questions is respond with a question. One of the most versatile and effective questions is “What do you think?” or “What are your thoughts about this?”
6. Check your product’s homepage for clarity
After a test participant has used your product for a while, stop and ask them to review the homepage. Does the information shown stack up with the experience they had and their priorities?
7. Confidence
Can the participants complete tasks with confidence or do they have to stop and think about how to proceed?
8. Place more weight on what the participant’s actions than words
You’ve asked them to think aloud which will help you understand their thoughts and mindset as they use the product. This will be useful. What if you notice them struggling, but they said it was easy? Pay more attention to what you saw them do. Many people will find it difficult to be brutally honest with you, no matter how comfortable they feel.
9. Silence
You will definitely encounter periods of silence from time-to-time. That’s perfectly normal. But you need give the participant some time to think, but be mindful when time is being wasted.
If a participant is having a hard time and you notice “hunt and peck” behavior, especially if it’s accompanied by grimaces or exasperation. As soon as your gut tells you that the participant is stuck, chime in. Don’t let the participant dangle anymore than necessary. If they are giving a thoughtful look, give them reasonable time to finish their thought before interrupting. Once you feel they should have moved on, ask them for their thoughts.
10. Emergency planning
Problems will happen.
More often than you’d expect, the participant might accidentally close the browser, the app might suddenly quit, etc. Making sure you are able to reset your test quickly is the best way to save the day. If you’re testing a website, save/bookmark every screen as a group and add it to the toolbar.
Following these tips you’ll have a strong foundation for conducting your own usability tests. Soon, you’ll be on your way to building a killer product.