UIE Roadshow : Day 3
Day 3 featured “Honing Your Usability Test Skills” taught by Ginny Redish. I would have headed home after day 2 if anyone else was teaching this seminar. Ginny Redish is a usability testing expert and I was lucky to bounce some of my testing issues off her.
Her seminar was great and reinforced the fact I am doing a lot of things right in my usability tests. I picked up a couple of new probing questions (for example, “How do you know that?”) and good ideas on handling observers. I also got her ideas on two testing challenges.
My ongoing issue with a number of tests is a lack of documentation or training material that we know will ship with the final product. Because we are doing formative testing early in the development cycle, these materials simply haven’t been created yet. In some cases, we knew the product or feature wouldn’t be usable without some form of training. Ginny first questioned the business goals (do we really want to produce products that require training?) and that’s a valid concern. However, assuming that aspect doesn’t change, she suggested that I walk the user through the system prior to the test, giving them the opportunity to ask questions. The resulting dialog is a form of user research and can be as valuable as the test itself.
The other topic I got her advice on was testing documentation. This is a tough one because most users in my experience don’t read it. She confirmed that the documentation should be tested in the context of the product it serves. In other words, create test scenarios around the product, not some isolated documentation. Then, force users to refer to the documentation during the test. They should be briefed that the test is focused on the documentation so they are prepared. It might be a good idea to screen testers for those that do use documentation.
It was a priviledge to speak with Ginny and I hope our paths cross again.