July 27, 2015 By: Rahul Samaddar
This is the second and last part of my blog series on Mobile UX Testing. While I have discussed the concept, requirements, methods and people involved in conducting this test in my earlier post, I will now talk about the approach to the Usability Process. I have also drawn inferences at the end, for you to collate the essence of the post.
Sequential Approach/Steps for the Usability Process?
- Identify the target audience on whom you are going to perform your Usability Test. In this step, you are going to identify users, who are close to real-time users.
Note: These users should not be either experts or newbies, otherwise you will get biased results. If they are experts, they will perform the tasks very smoothly. On the other hand, newbies will take unnecessary time, which will affect your results.
- Decide on the tasks that users are going to perform on the application. A list of tasks or situations will have to be created that users need to follow or perform on the application. The tasks/situations should be realistic. They should not be, imaginary world problems. For instance, the task of the Mileage app is to add your journey into the application. And you may e-mail details of that journey in the future for the purpose of reimbursement.
- Conduct the Usability Test using a team of experts who will collect the feedbacks and suggestions that can be used to finalize the results. It would be advantageous if the design team is available during this phase, as this will help them clearly understand the expectations of the user.
- Provide a detailed analysis of the report by the decision-makers and improve on key areas.
Some Inferences
- Usability Testing is not only a QA task. While the QA team acts as a facilitator conducting the test and records the results and feedback for analysis, the ‘end user’ is the actual tester.
- The outcome or end result of a Usability Test is not bugs or defects. It is basically the area, where there is a need to improve our application to make it more user-friendly. As a facilitator, the job of the tester is not only to raise the issues but also to suggest solutions for making the application more friendly for Users.
- It is not an easy task as a Usability Test is more about reading minds. But, yes, it plays a vital role in improving the usability of an application, making it more user-friendly.
While these thoughts and metrics are based on JK Tech standards, I encourage you to share additional industry-wide parameters and your thoughts on how you believe think Usability Testing should be done.
