Teams can argue for weeks about where a button should go. An hour spent watching a real person try to use the screen usually ends the argument.
Why a few people are enough
A long-standing finding in usability research is that about five test users reveal most of the serious problems in a design. The big problems trip nearly everyone, so the sixth and seventh person mostly repeat what you have already seen.
It is better to test with five people, fix what you found, and test with another five.
Who to invite
People like your real users. Colleagues know too much, and friends are too kind. For an internal tool, invite the staff who will use it every day.
Customers and mailing lists are the usual sources. A small thank-you is normal.
What to test
A clickable prototype is enough. Choose three to five tasks that matter, and phrase each as a goal: find a product and buy it, or change your delivery address.
Avoid the words that appear on the buttons. If the task says to open Settings and the button says Settings, you have tested reading.
Running the session
- See one person at a time, for about half an hour.
- Say that you are testing the product, not them.
- Ask them to think aloud.
- Give the task, then stay quiet.
- Do not help when they get stuck. Note where it happened.
- Record the screen if they agree.
Staying silent is the hard part. Once you explain how something works, that person can teach you nothing more about it.
What to look for
- Where they hesitate.
- Where they click the wrong thing.
- Words they do not understand.
- What they expected to happen.
- Where they give up.
What people did carries more weight than what they say they would like.
Turning it into changes
After the sessions, list each problem and count how many people hit it. Fix the ones that stopped several people completing a task. A single opinion about a colour can wait.
Then test again. A fix sometimes creates a new problem.
When to do it
On a prototype before development starts, when a change costs an afternoon. Again before launch. And after launch, on the parts of the product where the numbers show people leaving.
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