Usablity Tests (also known as think-aloud sessions)

Usability testing is usually the best way to determine which areas of your website are in most urgent need of attention.

The purpose of this document is to explain how go about running a usability test, from beginning to end - from realizing a need to delivering a report. 

Initial Meeting

 The first thing to do is call us (on 0845 230 3760) to setup a meeting to discuss:
  1. Your business goals
  2. The goals of your users
  3. How your existing website works
The point of this meeting is to agree what needs testing.

Propose Tasks

 We will propose 5-10 tasks which participants will later be asked to carry out during the test. Tasks for say, an e-commerce site, might look something like this:
  1. Use our website to find a jumper for winter
  2. You don't have your credit card to hand so you want to save what you've found so you can come back later and buy it
  3. You want to buy the thing you saved and an other item all in one go, do this
  4. The jumper was the wrong size - find out how you can send it back

Organise Participants & Venue

Participants

We will advise you on organising test participants. The main thing to get right here is to make sure that participants are representative of your target audience. It's usually best to test with 4 or 5 people.

Venue

Many clients have been able to find a spare room, desk and computer where the testing can be carried out. Alternatively we can arrange suitable facilities (typically we would rent a room in the Brighton Media Centre).

The Test




 Photograph of Ben observing a user during a think-aloud sessionOn test day we will talk you through all aspects of the test; things like where people will sit, who will take care of participants as they arrive and so on.

Tests are carried out one at a time with sessions lasting around 30 minutes.

Each participant is asked to sign consent form. This form explains that "it's not you that's being tested, it's the website".

It's a good idea to offer a small reward such as book tokens or something.

Report

 Folowing the testing session, we will compare notes and discuss patterns in user behavior.

Our findings are delivered as a written report. This document details areas of difficulty with specific problems being graded by severity.

Armed with this information you are in a much better position to make an informed decision about how best to spend your budget.


To talk to Hobo about usability testing, call 0845 230 3760