Low cost usability testing
Thursday, September 04, 2008
When we plan Web projects with clients, we stress (and re-stress) the importance of usability testing, especially for sites with e-commerce or significant search functionality. Many usability tests for new or redesigned sites seem to go the same way --- the first tester starts to work their way through the site and quickly uncovers some (now that they have been pointed out) blindingly obvious and major usability issues. Sometimes these are things that the development team missed, but just as often they are the result of a compromise solutions to heated disagreements between marketing, business people, designers and/or developers. On seeing the results, the Web site team often gets defensive and says "that's just one user, and besides, that guy is a doofus --- anyone else will see how it should work." Then the next tester comes in and finds the same issues. And the next, and so on.
Usability testing is a great process when the it takes place early on in the development/'testing cycle, or even during the design phase. When no testing takes place until after the site is finished and ready to be launched, it's not as fun. Major issues are often still uncovered, but now there is a lot more disappointment and blame. There are lots of uncomfortable meetings to discuss
how this could have happened. For this reason, it's really a good idea to make "test early and test often" your mantra when designing or re-designing a site.
Often, there is resistance to testing. One of the main reasons cited for not testing is the cost. Fortunately,
www.usertesting.com has just taken away this argument. Now, for $19 per tester (and, by the way, most problems are uncovered by a handful of testers), you can create a usability test profile, submit it, and start getting results (with video, audio and written comments) within an hour or so.
We completed a 3 user test yesterday of some of our pay per click landing pages. Guess what? We immediately heard about an obvious usability issue. We've taken the affected page down while we're re-working it. When we've finished, you can bet we'll run another test. I urge you to do the same on your site.
Posted by: Mark Reichard at 7:36 AM
Tags:
Comments: