pycon2015/usability_testing_on_the_cheap.md

usability testing on the cheap

• good usability can make small things feel big
• can also make big things feel manageable (e.g. Heroku)
• usability is expensive, whether outsourced or in-house -- $100/hr. for contractors

caveat

• presenter isn't a UX person; she's a self-taught dev with a psych degree
• if you can afford a UX person, get one

when?

• when you get the idea
• before you design
• before you code
• while you're coding
• after 1.0

testing

• when testing code, test usability at the same time

when you have an idea

• talk to your customers
  • where are they?
  • DON'T ASK "would you use this?" -- loaded question; people are polite
  • "do you use something like this?"
    • a way to find competitors
    • what doesn't it do? (the competing app)
  • face to face
  • outcomes
    • is it unique?
    • is it desirable?
    • who is your competition?
    • where are your users and how do you interactive with/communicate to them?

where does everything go?

• cards
  • about 30
  • on each card goes an action
  • ask them to sort cards into piles
  • handwritten, so you can add more cards
  • watch them as they're uncertain, changing their mind, etc.
  • outcomes
    • what is the structure of the site?
    • what content is hard to categorize?

make it pretty

• face to face
• have a neutral party present it
• questions
  • initial thoughts?
  • does it remind you of anything?
  • how would you...? ( do this task, find this piece of information)
    • see if they can find x in the IA
• screen AND paper
• watch faces!
• outcomes
  • are you sending the right message?
  • can people guess what your content is intelligently, without using a search box? ("i bet that would be there")
  • more the design appealing

coding

• very small iterations, then go back and "what do you think now?"
• mock up new ideas first
• outcomes
  • are you on the right track?
  • did your users have a better idea?

out of beta

• you're not done talking to your users
  • interview them again
  • are there any pain points to our system?
  • what do you like?
  • how do you...?
    • don't fight your users, make it easy for them to use it in the weird way that they do
  • outcomes
    • do your users still want your product?
    • what should you drop?
    • what should you promote?
    • is it time for 2.0?
      • are they getting bored with the site?

accessibility

• don't do it at the end
• speaker wrote a book about it
• Penn State accessibility site
• accessibility suites ---> NO

questions

• look at competition before developing your product? really?
  • yes. look deeply, and you'll see where the market opportunities (weaknesses) are.
  • you need to know how to make a case for your product with users of competition.
• how do you know if the less-used features are critical for a few?
  • analytics, talking to people
  • if this is the case, promote the feature
• how do you find the testers before you build?
  • join local user groups, bulletin boards, meetup groups
  • start with Reddit
• how to get more feedback from the community once you've found them?
  • SurveyMonkey
    • look over those questions very carefully
    • get a psych person to look over them, if possible
  • email
  • face to face == best feedback, even from a much smaller pool