User Testing
Yesterday as a group we sat down over lunch to watch a pair of user testing videos. These were two people who had never used Backboard before and were being asked to give feedback on a document produced by a “colleague” of theirs. The prompt follows:
Goal: You received an email from a colleague of yours asking you to review a document and leave your feedback. The email contains the following link: (some random link to a testing Backboard)
Both users were able to visit the site and (somewhat) successfully use the product to provide feedback. It is not in the successes that user testing is useful, but in the failures.
When someone fails to perform a task that seems trivial you are forced to rethink the problem. They approached the task as an outsider and you must be able to put yourself in their shoes. We learned a lot from these tests and will continue to use them as a tool to understand how people view Backboard. We have even incorporated user testing into our weekly routine. They inspire us to continually view the product through a user’s eyes.
Ed Kohler Said,
January 14, 2009 @ 11:07 am
Great point about the failures. Another problem with using colleagues for feedback is they often know more about a website, product, etc., than a typical end user. So they may not fail at certain tasks due to their advanced understanding.
Annie Ma Said,
January 20, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
Well said! It’s great that you guys have incorporated user testing into the weekly routine - too often, user testing is something done at the beginning and end, but left out of the middle. Kudos to you guys for bringing user testing back into the kitchen! Can’t wait to see what you guys continue to cook up.