| Usability Testing on a Shoestring Budget
This four-page article contains the information on this Web page as well as three pages of "tips from the trenches": tips based on our observation of several hundred people attempting to install a DSL (digital subscriber line) modem and connect to DSL service. Download the free Usability Testing on a Shoestring Budget (110 K) article as a PDF file.
A word of warning! Testing user documents on a typical group of consumers is an extremely humbling experience. Some consumers will refuse to read the documents. Many will not read the documents until they run into a problem that they can't solve. Most consumers who do read the documents will read them quickly. They won't think about what you are explaining to them. |
Usability testing is the best way to make sure that your user documents (installation guides, quick start guides, user guides, help systems, and so on) meet your users' needs.
If your budget permits, hire usability testing professionals. They will recruit appropriate test subjects, design and conduct valid tests, report objective results, and recommend both immediate and long-term improvements to the product and the user documents. If possible, attend the usability testing sessions as an observer. You will learn much more by watching test subjects as they attempt to perform tasks using your instructions than you will learn from reading test reports. If your budget does not permit you to hire professionals, ask people you know who are typical users to perform tasks, and provide them with the user documents. Watch them closely but never give them any help! (Some technical writers explain the procedures to the test subjects. This defeats the purpose of the testing.) Don't tell the test subjects that you are testing the user documents. Tell them you are testing the product. If you tell the test subjects that you are testing the user documents, many will try to please you by following the instructions. You want to know what typical users will do when they are using the product on their own. If possible, ask a person who is familiar with the product to act as technical support. Give the test subjects that person's telephone number to call for help if they need technical support. If another person is not available to act as a technical support contact, perform this role yourself. Remember to answer the test subjects' questions in the same way that a technical support person would answer them. Don't use the questions as an excuse to immediately explain the instructions. While you watch test subjects perform tasks, observe where they are having difficulties. You can ask them to tell you what they are thinking as they perform the tasks. Listen to what they tell you, but don't give them any help! When you understand why test subjects are having difficulties, change your instructions to correct the difficulties. Test the revised instructions on new test subjects. If test subjects still have difficulties, revise the instructions again and test them again. The best way to fix many difficulties that arise when test subjects try to use a product is to improve the product's design. Recommend these improvements to the developers. (If they question the value of the improvements, ask them to watch the usability tests!) Although time may not permit making changes to the current product, the developers may be able to improve the next version of the product. Return to:
|
