Validate
Usability Testing
Watching people try real tasks with your design, without help, to find what gets in their way.
What is Usability Testing?
Watching people try real tasks with your design, without help, to find what gets in their way.
What you learn
Watch people use it without help. Their struggles are the findings.
When it helps
you need to know whether people can actually use what you’ve designed.
Use it at work
- Write three real tasks, without using the interface’s words.
- Ask people to do them and think aloud.
- Don’t help. When they’re stuck, ask what they expected.
- Note where they struggle, and fix the biggest problems first.
Your output
In your next test, don’t explain the interface. When someone is stuck, ask what they expected, and write it down.
Watch for
Helping or explaining when people get stuck.
Related practices
- Prototyping
- Interaction Design
- Accessibility
- Research Planning
- Screen Reader Evaluation
- Tree Testing
- Workload Assessment
- Heuristic Evaluation
Sources
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