There are two ways to structure a UX research study when we're testing two (or more) designs: we can have each design tested by different people, or we can reuse the same users for all conditions. Each approach has some advantages and problems.
For 30 years, the recommendations have remained the same for improving usability in a UX design project on a tight budget: simplified user testing with 5 users, early test of paper prototypes, and heuristic evaluation.
How to conduct user research for systems with confidential or otherwise sensitive data, for example in domains like healthcare or financial services, where it can be problematic to record screens or otherwise share the user's information.
Usability testing and other UX evaluation methods can be divided into two major categories: formative evaluation and summative evaluation. Both have their place, but at different stages in the design lifecycle, and they have different characteristics, for example in the number of test participants needed for a good study.
Usability testing is similar to how wild animals hunt for food: we're trying to hunt down the design flaws in the user interface and must optimize a series of studies for total gain, rather than spend too much on any one study.
There are a lot of elements involved in a mobile usability test. In this video, we'll walk you through an example test setup, including the necessary equipment, and discuss how to prepare for a test.
The number of test participants for qualitative usability testing that optimizes return-on-investment is determined by 2 parameters: the facilitator's observational skills and the design team's speed when generating the next design iteration.
Visual design details like fonts and colors can have subtle but important effects on the overall user experience. Use research methods that are sensitive to these effects to test your visual design.
Formative usability testing is best done with a small number of study participants, so that you have time and budget to test more design iterations of the user interface.
Our words define UX research goals for users, stakeholders, and teams. Turning UX research into improved design is already challenging. Why make it more so by setting unsuitable expectations with the words we use to describe research?
There are a lot of elements involved in usability studies with a desktop computer. In this video, we'll walk you through an example test setup, including the necessary equipment, and discuss how to prepare for a test.
There is no excuse for not performing usability studies. They’re fast and cheap, and very convincing. Test with representative customers using realistic tasks, then be amazed by what you observe.
Facilitate better usability studies with these 3 techniques: Echo, Boomerang, and Columbo. These methods allow you to get clarification from participants with minimal disruption or bias.
Tips for translating UX issues found in analytics into user research. Analytics tell you what customers are doing, but not why they are doing it. Pairing analytics and user research will provide you with clearer answers.
Task scenarios are core to usability studies. The way researchers write tasks can bias usability results by influencing where people focus their attention.
Don't waste time creating prototypes when the designs already exist in the real world. Before you throw out the old and bring in the new, perform user research on existing websites.
Many organizations claim to be user-centric. Yet they fail to include users in the development process. Without customer input, organizations risk creating bad interfaces.
Create low-fidelity, low-commitment rapid user interface prototypes to can get early user feedback. Video shows how to conduct user testing of these simulated screens, with examples of the kinds of usability problems you can discover by testing different kinds of prototypes.
