Usability testing

planning

This document can be used as a worksheet or as a guide when making your own separate plan - it may be easier to create your own document rather than fill in the boxes here.

What we need to test?

What are you testing?

What is it?

�Your testing item could be:�A paper prototype�A clickable wireframe�A form, quiz or survey made in a survey builder�A webpage using a template�A complete website, app or tool made by someone else�A test configuration of a tool�Advice or information in a document

​

What is the main user need you want to know if it meets?

�Take this from your research. If you have more than one main user need, then you may need to design more than one task to ask people to do with your prototype or tool.

�

To plan your usability testing you need to know 1) what you have available to test with 2) what needs it is designed to meet.

�

We are testing [tool or prototype description] with [group of people] to see if it helps meet their need to [ X so that they can Y]

Who are you aiming to help?

Who are the people that you believe have the need you identified?

�You need to run your testing with people who have that need.�If that is not possible, you might run your test with people who have had that need previously. For example:��1) Anyone who is raising a child can test a tool with parenting advice�2) People who have already got help with an addiction can test a tool to help people realise they need help by remembering their earlier situation

Who are they and what makes it easy or hard for you to help them?

�This covers everything from tech habits, to personality traits such as appetite for risk. It includes barriers or privileges that arise as a result of societal prejudice in terms of gender, age, disability, sexuality, ethnicity and religion.��This is where our assumptions and biases can stop us helping people successfully

To plan your usability testing you need to know who you need to test with. You can think about “who” people are in two different ways.

The combination of the people, and the need you are hoping to meet create your “priority group” for testing. Make sure your user need on Slide 3 is clear about the group. Aim to recruit people from the group who self-identify as having that need.

These groups need representation in your testing. They may need different support to take part - or you may need help inviting them. Explore on Slide 9 and revise your testing plans for inclusivity.

What do you want to find out?

5

Write in anything you want to explore:

Examples

• How far do they get towards their need?
• Where do they get stuck?
• Do they notice the X while they are doing Y?
• Do they use the most direct route available?
• Do they speed up and slow down at any point?
• Do they have any related needs once they have solved this one?

Now that you have the main user need you are exploring also think about some of the other things you want to find out. You can also make notes for yourself about where you predict or assume there might be issues.

Writing your task

6

Main task:

Please use this to do X…�Please use this and decide if you want to do X, Y, Z or none of them�Please explore this as if someone had asked you to see if it helped with Y… you’ve got X amount of time

Examples

• Review these task planning tips.

​

Avoid these common mistakes:

• Don’t give clues in the task description
• Don’t make it too simple or too complicated
• Avoid accidentally triggering emotional reactions
• Avoid “how would you” it will make people talk not do�

Secondary task:

Can you show me how you would close the app?

Is there something you need help with/ information on - can you find it here?

Or pick something from the “additional activities” slide���

Can you write a clear task that will help you work out your main user need? It should be a real world task that people might actually carry out. It can be open ended - but you need to work hard to make sure it isn’t a leading task. You may also want to create some follow up tasks if the tool you are testing meets more than one need.

Writing your instructions script

7

Instructions

​

Things to include

• Emphasise that they may feel like they’re being tested - but they’re not - it’s all about whether the tool is useful or not
• Let them know that they can’t ask you for help during the test - they just need to try things - and should say “I give up” - if they would have given up in the real world
• Ask them to share what they are thinking out loud if they can - what they are looking for and what they hope to see

You need a script to go alongside your task. The usability testing process is quite unusual and you need to ask people to do certain things. Write some instructions on how to take part, and repeat the task you want them to do at the end

Practicing follow up questions

8

Examples

• Learn about avoiding leading questions�

Try these approaches:

• Keep your observations pure: “you hovered here for some time - what were you thinking?” not “you seemed to be unsure”
• Ask about “areas of the page” rather than using names for features
• Practice ending phrases with … leaving people space to speak�

You will find you want to ask follow up questions either during or at the end of a usability test. You need to practice putting these together so that you don’t make them leading, or bring your own assumptions in to play. Your notes on Slide 5 will help you think about things that might come up and guess at some good follow ups you might need.

Representation and bias

9

Things to consider

• Who is the highest priority for your organisation to support?
• Who do you know least about?
• Do you have people who can help you increase diversity in the people you test with?
• Can you fund incentives for testing (especially for people who are often asked to speak on behalf of their community)?
• To include these people in research are there any extra things for you to think about?�

This page is for thinking about who you need to research with and any things you might need to put in place to support that research.

We recommend you start by gathering thoughts and then turn those thoughts into a series of statements for any groups you want to include in the research:��We need to know more about X so we can help them better�In order to help them to take part we will Y�

More reading about bias in user research

Safeguarding, safety and wellbeing

For your participants

�User research often asks participants to revisit difficult periods in their lives and they may need support to deal with that. If we don’t have a plan for how to offer it, then our research is dangerous.

We also need to consider whether our participants are in need of formal safeguarding and how we build that in to our research plan.

For your researchers

�The most common challenge for researchers is the experience known as vicarious trauma. We need to make sure we’ve built in time and support systems for them to deal with that.

Researchers may also need to be prepared to respond to someone who speaks about things during research that count as a safeguarding concern. Will there be someone on the call who has the right training?

You need to risk assess your usability testing in the same way you would risk assess any other activity.

Note your risks and mitigations on slide 12

Note your risks and mitigations on slide 13

Work with your organisation safeguarding lead. Or use the online guide digisafe to help you plan.

Participants safeguarding, safety and well-being

11

Things to consider

• Risk of direct abuse or harm occurring during session?
• Risk of emotional distress because of session content?
• Risk of trusting researchers in a way that disclosure (e.g. telling researcher about harm that needs reporting) happens during session?
• Where (on the call, on chat etc) is the nearest/best trained support you can offer?
• How will you adapt activities to accommodate distress?

If you have a model that your organisation usually uses for risk assessments - then use that:��If not then list risks in this format:��Risk: �Mitigation (what we do to reduce the risk): �Are we happy that the risk level is low enough now? Yes/No

Researchers safeguarding, safety and well-being

12

Things to consider

• Risk of direct abuse or harm occurring during session?
• Risk of vicarious trauma because of session content?
• Risk of needing to handle a disclosure/concern during the session?
• Do you have frontline workers with the right experience - would it be right for them to join calls?
• Do you have a good supervision (in the therapeutic sense) offer researchers can use?
• Have you made time for researchers to process the sessions emotionally?

If you have a model that your organisation usually uses for risk assessments - then use that:��If not then list risks in this format:��Risk: �Mitigation (what we do to reduce the risk): �Are we happy that the risk level is low enough now? Yes/No

Note-taking, recording and consent

13

Things to consider

• Do you have a pair of people to carry out the interview? If so one may be able to take notes and not need a recording
• Do you want to record and use a transcription service? If you do you’ll have more detailed notes and may see new patterns, but it takes additional time.
• Where will you store the information? Is that storage GDPR compliant.
• When will you delete it/anonymise it?

In order to create a consent form, you will need to decide: how you are taking notes, whether you need a recording of the session and who you will share notes with. (Don’t forget to allow sharing with digital support partners such as your mentor or other volunteers)

Think about a balance between:

• How much information you need
• How much information you have time/capacity to process
• What will make your participants feel comfortable
• What will help you avoid bias

This will help you create your own consent form or adapt the Catalyst template below.�

The Catalyst template consent form template

14

Additional activities

Here are some examples of activities that can be helpful to do to find out certain things

• You want to know what words people are comfortable with and what words they will look for

Try a card sorting exercise. Designed to help create a website menu structure they are also really helpful to simply understand how people think about your subject. https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/card-sorting.html

​

• You have some outstanding questions that you haven’t had a chance to cover in an interview yet

Add an interview section on to the end of the testing

​

• You want people to be able to USE your content

Try out a highlighter test AND ask people “what will you do now that you have read this” to find out if the content is useful to them. (The article describes in person, but we’ve had lots of success with people using Word’s highlighting tools)�https://userresearch.blog.gov.uk/2014/09/02/a-simple-technique-for-evaluating-content/

​

There are many different possible activities depending on the stage of your project. Talk to us and we can recommend more

Quick view of the testing plan

Fill in short answers directly, or link to longer answers.