Recruiting, Testing, and Organizing
User Testing Plan
- Planning and writing the questionaries
- Reached out to the following organizations in New York
Girls in NYC
Girls Who Code
Techbridge Girls
Black Girls Code
Ladies, Wine & Design (I shall seek advice on the technical aspects) - Fiding at least over 8 real target users, between14–18 aged girls
- Conducting a User Testing with over 10 users with the interactive prototype
- Re-conducting another User-Testing after improving features based on the feedback.
- Organizing the results and types of users by using tables and color codes
The point of testing is to fail before it matters. (And to get good quotes for your presentation!
Inspired by Christina
List of appropriate questions
If no, → Why not?
If yes, → How often? / What sorts of?
Phase 1: screening
- How old are you?
- What is your major?
- What was your future dream when you were young?
- Who inspired you, and why?
- What was the most significant barrier while achieving your dream job (an engineer)?
- Have you ever gave or received advice to others, engineers?
- When was the last time you gave some advice to others?
Phase 2: pre-test
- How do you find career information online?
- How confident are you with browsing information, and role models or other online career-related tasks?
- Which device(s) do you usually use for browsing the career information?
- Have you used any career program/online site for women engineers before?
- Have you used a similar site before?
- (If they liked) What would make you decide to pay attention to that (event or product)?
Phase 3: test w/ prototype
- What is the main element of the page that stuck with you?
- Who do you think the intended audience is?
- I noticed you did ____. Can you tell me why?
- Did you notice whether there was any other way to ___?
ㄴ I am trying to determine why the user did one thing instead of another. - Which of these two approaches/options do you find best? Why?
ㄴ This is useful if you’re trying to determine the more appealing of multiple options. - Can you tell me what you think of ___? (icons, menus, text, layout of the content)
- How did you find the experience of using the prototype to complete this task?
- What did you think of the AR training and video answering experience?
Phase 4: post-test
- What was your overall impression of <“hello,w”>?
- What was the best/worst thing about <“hello,w”>?
ㄴ (Get more specific feedback about the features that make the product stand out.) - How would you like to change <“hello,w”>?
- How would you compare <“hello,w”>’s video communication to [competitor]?
ㄴ This is an opportunity to see how different details of my product stack up against competitors like Tiktok or IG in the eyes of users.
Recruiting
- Fiding at least over 8 real target users who will challenge your assumptions, not your roommate, friends or your professors.
- Reaching out to the stranger is not easy but give it a try.
What I can do about it:
- Identify relevant communities
- Be clear about ask (Questions)
- Reach out early and often
- Timebox / Buddy system
- No really don’t put it off
There are 4 reasons why including stakeholders in this way is beneficial:
- It’s more likely that the findings will be accepted as stakeholders have had a hand in shaping the research, and therefore feel some ownership.
- It brokers a strong relationship between the business and UX, as including them shows you want their expertise on the business perspective.
- Your stakeholders can offer ideas about other research questions you hadn’t thought about.
- It’s another way to educate people outside your team about the value that UX brings to the organization. A prioritization workshop can be an educational experience. By describing how useful different methods are — and when it’s okay to use them — your stakeholders will begin to understand that there’s more to UX than they initially thought.
Testing
- Educate and involve stakeholders in understanding and prioritizing research questions
- Practice asking questions / active listening
- Don’t get defensive
- Test different things in different interviews (Don’t worry about covering everything)
- List out your hypotheses beforehand (By dividing some types of users)
- No really please take notes.
What is hard about:
- Avoiding Yes/No questions and leading questions
- Leaving space for genuine reactions
- Ask for people real stories
- Participants are just as nervous as you
- Actually listening beyond your assumptions
- Taking copious notes
- Digging in deeper
Synthesis
- Start organizing the results by using tables and color codes
- Schedule time to do this now
- Review your hypotheses and questions going in
- Find themes across interviews
- List out action items before just jumping in
- Include time for a retrospective
- Don’t forget thank to your testers
What is hard about:
- Actually making time for it
- Not taking shortcuts
- Making sense of what you heard
