Usability Testing

We have 8 responses so far on a craigslist ad for an hour in trade for free pizza/beer.


Wojtek pointed me at a good source:

• http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000779.html

Which has a few excepts from the book "Don't Make Me Think":

• Chapter 9 "What do you test, and when do you test it?"
  
• Chapter 10 "What to do if you're the facilitator"

So from those readings, I'd recommend something along the following (and let's use this thread for us to throw in more ideas):

• We'll pick 2-3 candidates, and meet with them one at a time, for ~45min each.  (I was erroronously referring to this as a 'focus group' - but that applies to group discussion, this should be one-on-one 'Usability Testing'.)  Maybe we can arrange to knock these out friday afternoon, and use our friday brainfuck to go over the results.
  
• Afacilitator/moderator should be in the back room with the user,prompting them to walk through the site, create a forum, reply, etc. (we'll brain storm specifics below.)
• Anybody else interested, can be out in the big room watching the screen through vnc.  We can also use skype to transmit audio and record it (1 way only though to ppl out in the big room).  We'll use a screen capturing program to record activity.
• We should repeat this action a few weeks out after making changes.
  

Some important bullet points from the readings:

• If you want a great site, you've got to test.
• Testingone user is 100 percent better than testing none.  Testing one userearly in the project is better than testing 50 near the end.
• The point of testing is not to prove or disprove something. It's to inform your judgment.
• Testing is an iterative process.
• Nothing beats a live audience reaction.

For the facilitator:

• Try the test yourself first.
• Be patient with the participants, pat them on the back, make them feel good and thank them when done
• Remind them to speak outloud about their thoughts
• Letthem know that they can ask a question anytime, but we may hold-offfrom answering till the end to see how they figure out an answer ontheir own.
• Keep instructions simple and open.
• Jot down notes after each session.