User Testing is our most in-depth usability service and the most potentially beneficial for an overall review of usability on a website or web application. It involves recording the thought process and actions of representative users as they attempt to navigate defined tasks on your website. The resulting data allows us to easily and efficiently identify the majority of usability problems on a given website.
We begin by developing a plan that addresses any usability concerns with the existing website and the intended audience interactions with the products, services, and information on your website. We formulate scenarios based on this plan to allow us to analyze how users carry out the identified tasks.
Once the plan is approved, we can conduct the tests either in-person or remotely. We record user’s interactions with the screen (including mouse-clicks and keystrokes) and record their voices and faces. A facilitator administers the test and takes notes throughout each participant’s test. All of this information is collected and analyzed by our team.
Based upon the results of this usability test, we will present any identified pain points and recommendations for remediation. In most cases, we will recommend iterating or modifying the website to address the usability concerns revealed in the testing process, then following up with another usability test. The reason is that while some problems might be fixed in the first round of testing, the changes may reveal other usability issues that need to be addressed.
We recommend that websites undergo three cycles of usability testing to ensure that as many usability issues are revealed and addressed in the quickest, most efficient manner possible.
