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

The goal of the study


At the start of a study, its goals must be clear. The goals drive most of the other elements of the framework.

Goals can be anything from all-encompassing (wanting a general feel of how usable a website is) to very specific (wanting to evaluate a new feature and how the users like it, or why the conversion rate went down after a website redesign). At this point in the study, it is more important to ensure that the goals are realistic (that is, that they can actually be achieved with a usability study) than very detailed.

 

For example, if the goal is to evaluate whether a new marketplace website can go live in its current state, then the goal is not feasible for a usability study: the study can only provide results about the usability of the website, and while we absolutely agree that usability should be a strong deciding factor, a go-live decision for a marketplace website should also be based on whether the product catalog is complete and relevant to customers, for example...