

Ask HN: How do you do your usability testing? - jrwoodruff

I'm working on building a site and we're in the early stages of design. In my day job, we talk a lot about usability and user-centered design but have implemented very little. I want my project to utilize some of the methods we've talked about, particularly methods gleaned from Steve Krug's "Don't make me think" and Jakob Nielsen's well-renowned site.<p>My question is: How do you do usability testing? What lessons have you learned? What software and equipment do you use? Is there a key piece of literature I need before I jump into this?<p>My budget is very limited, as this (so far) is a boot-strapped project. Any advice is appreciated.
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good_guys_win
Amass a large number of facebook "friends" that you don't know, then ask them
(in the chat) to beta test whatever it is you create. If they ask questions
for answers that should be self explanitory then you need to redo it until
it's obvious.

Hint: if you get facebook friends that are high and drunk all the time this
can actually help idiot-proof your design as well.

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jrwoodruff
Just wanted to thank everyone for their input and add some info for
posterity's sake;

I stumbled across Silverback about 5 minutes ago and it's what I was looking
for to help along testing. It simultaneously records a video of the user and a
screencapture, so you can analyze where they're confused, happy, etc.

<http://www.silverbackapp.com/>

Disclaimer: I have NO connection to this company, just found this useful.

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yeti
Find 3-5 people/friends, get them in front of a machine and run through it. No
fancy software, just sit next to them and observe, ask questions if they seem
stuck or confused. We do it every couple of weeks, seems to work well. Also
consider paying for 1-2 hours of a usability experts time to review your site
in person, a very good investment.

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makecheck
I think the most important thing to do is limit your input. Find 5 people _at
most_ , and definitely document everything they say, but don't open up to the
whole world. Otherwise you'll end up with so many conflicting opinions that
you won't be able to make any decisions.

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hshah
Here is a presentation that includes tactics on how to do usability testing as
a startup:

<http://www.slideshare.net/cindyalvarez/user-testing-tactics>

