User testing is an important step in completing a product you are working on. Without user testing, you wouldn’t know what you need to fix or change in order to have a successful end product to users.
Usability happens during the design process. What exactly is a design process, you might wonder? Well, a design process consists of 5 steps. These five steps are:
Research
Design
Prototype – Usability Test
Build
Test – Usability Test
There are two steps in the design process that you will complete user tests for. These steps are the prototype phase and the testing phase. The phase I am in for this project is the prototyping phase.
Creating a prototype can be either a high-fidelity prototype or a low-fidelity prototype. Low-fidelity prototypes are often paper-based and usually do not allow user interactions. (But, in this prototype I created it does.) High-fidelity prototyping is usually computer-based and is more realistic for users to use.
According to Christopher Murphy from Smashing Magazine running a usability test will help you:
- Identify if users are able to complete specific tasks successfully
- Establish how efficiently users can undertake predetermined tasks
- Pinpoint changes to the design that might need to be made to address any shortcomings to improve performance
I created a low-fidelity prototype on paper for my users to test. The difference was that I used the application Marvel to upload the screens and make them interactive. This made my testing session much more of a high-fidelity testing than just a paper prototype. The Marvel application allows you to upload paper prototypes to the site and make them interactive. Sharing is available so you can have users test out the app you have created. If you are creating a low-fidelity prototype I would suggest using this software as it works as an actual app.
Before I started my user test I needed to come up with a few tasks for my users to do when they tested the app. I came up with three tasks for my users which were:
- Task 1: You have been driving over a big pothole near your home and you want to report it so it can be fixed.
- Task 2: You just moved to the town of Randolph with your two kids and want to know about its different parks and where they are located
- Task 3: You want to find out about the local farmers market in your town to get some fresh vegetables.
Giving the users tasks to complete while they are going through the app allows for you to watch users and what they do. The Nielsen Norman Group also states that giving tasks lets you “gain qualitative insights into what is causing users to have trouble” (nngroup). Engaging with the app will allow me to see what I can fix and what might need to be clearer for users to click into and use.
Along with my user testing, I made a professional script to read to the users taking my test. With the script, I made sure to get verbal consent to record and use the video for my data. Due to unforeseen circumstances, COVID-19 prevented me from doing user testing on more people than I wanted. My user testing was done over the application Zoom where I screen recorded two participants for my test.
As for the results of the test I had interesting feedback from the two participants. I realized it took both of them a while to find some of the information from the tasks I gave them. Participant 1, Lily, had a hard time distinguishing between the Home page and the hamburger menu. She didn’t quite know that there were many different options to click into when she first began. She thought she could navigate everything from the homepage. This prompts me to maybe look into this and possibly change the name from Home to another name so it doesn’t confuse the user.
Participant 2, Amy, took a while to find out where the Farmers Market was located. She suggested that Farmers Market be on the Town News page and that not be located under home and family.
Doing a user test can be very helpful as it is was to me. I got interesting feedback on how to better the app for users to navigate through it and find what they are looking for. To see my full report, video of user tests, and PDF of the user test click HERE to view. Thanks for reading!
NATURALLY BRI 