Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By : Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji
Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By: Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji

Overview of this book

Usability testing is a subdiscipline of User Experience. Its goal is to ensure that a given product is easy to use and the user's experience with the product is intuitive and satisfying. Usability studies are conducted with study participants who are representative of the target users to gather feedback on a user interface. The feedback is then used to refine and improve the user interface. Remote studies involve fewer logistics, allow participation regardless of location and are quicker and cheaper to execute compared to in person studies, while delivering valuable insights. The users are not inhibited by being in a new environment under observation; they can act naturally in their familiar environment. Remote unmoderated studies additionally have the advantage of being independent of time zones. This book will teach you how to conduct qualitative remote usability studies, in particular remote moderated and unmoderated studies. Each chapter provides actionable tips on how to use each methodology and how to compensate for the specific nature of each methodology. The book also provides material to help with planning and executing each study type.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
8
What to Consider When Analyzing and Presenting the Study Results
Index

Who to recruit


The goal of any usability study is to understand whether the target users of the product are able to use it with ease, and whether they would like to use the product in the future and will recommend it to others.

Participants whose profiles are the most similar to the target users will therefore provide the most relevant feedback. Imagine running a study on a retail website that targets people who are 50 years of age and older. Feedback from millennials may not be very relevant, since younger people interact with technology differently than older people do. For instance, millennials might not comment on the font size, color contrast, and readability of the site, even though these are likely pain points for some older users.

 

Or, imagine a product used by nurses to monitor patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital. If the study participants don't have the relevant work experience, they will be hard-pressed to provide meaningful insights into the ease of using the product...