Your participants are lying to you. Not all of them. Not all the time. But more often than you'd like to think.
Your participants are lying to you. Not all of them. Not all the time. But more often than you'd like to think.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Planning is a critical part of the usability testing process. Without planning, your testing activity runs the risk of disorganisation at best and misleading or useless results at worst. Spending time planning will reduce the risks of the testing going off the rails and enhances the potential for great insights. This article explores the reasons for planning your usability testing process and just what you should think about. Hint: we mention checklists quite a bit.
Having worked in and for government and large organisations over 20 years, I have learnt the hard way about the importance of engaging stakeholders to get buy in – from the Executive Director to the Director General, and everyone in between – and ensure the change is successful (and retained). In this article, I outline some methods that we typically use in our consulting work to take these important stakeholders on the journey – lessons that are relevant to anyone working in large organisations, not just those in government.
Get your user research into shape with triangulation
Whether you’re running moderated usability testing or remote unmoderated IA testing, knowing how many participants to recruit is crucial for getting the most out of your research.
Chat platforms and apps like WhatsApp, Twitch, Discord, Slack, Messenger and SnapChat have already flooded the market, with continuous exponential growth across the globe. To date, WhatsApp (a mobile messaging app) alone has a whopping 1.5 billion monthly active users!
Chat platforms and apps like WhatsApp, Twitch, Discord, Slack, Messenger and SnapChat have already flooded the market, with continuous exponential growth across the globe. To date, WhatsApp (a mobile messaging app) alone has a whopping 1.5 billion monthly active users!
I am excited to announce Peak Usability has now been renamed PeakXD (short for Peak eXperience Design). Why?
When I started Peak Usability 15 years ago I actually named it UX consulting but no one knew what UX meant (User eXperience for those of you who don't work in the industry). Back then most people’s understanding of user centred design went as far as ‘usability’. And let’s face it, in 2003 there were a lot of really bad websites offering poor user experiences due largely to usability issues. User experience is so much more than usability and people understand that now.
Helping participants' complete tasks; tipping them off that they have made a mistake; giving them too much freedom or leading participants; these are all things inexperienced test moderators might find themselves doing when moderating a test session. This article explores some of the common mistakes and why they're damaging to the test outcomes presented through 5 Star Wars archetypes. Learn how to be a good test moderator and how to avoid being one of these 5 archetypes.
Some usability testing with real users is always better than none. If time and budget are short there are some great online tools out there to get the job done.
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