A guest post by Megan Williams, Web Marketing Specialist at Saint Mary's Press.
Recently Jason Shawley (Digital Manager at Saint Mary's Press) and I facilitated two separate user experience testing sessions with one of SMP's newest products in development, the Bible App for the iPad. Within the scope of the testing we managed to glean several nuggets of wisdom from a novice perspective that will, we hope, serve to aid the next wave of iteration and future facilitators.
Something that struck us about our experience with UX (user experience) testing, foremost, was how well paper prototyping works. Although we tested a high-tech product using a low fidelity technique (paper), resulting feedback was just as effective. We also learned how delightfully insightful users are when it comes to carrying out tasks.
Many users pepper the experience with body language and/or starts-and-stops indicating taste or distaste for certain functions. Utterances such as” yuck”,” hmm’ and “ugh” were superb indicators that an intended task had strayed too far from what the prototype made possible. Likewise, expressions of delight when encountering an unexpected feature or ease of use helped us to identify when we were on the right track.
Jason, as facilitator, delighted in how easy it was for a person doing the testing to pretend they were using an actual iPad despite the paper prototype given to them. Although paper may seem like a waste of time when dealing with high-tech products, the reality is it’s a perfect place to start due to the low-cost and turnaround. Results from low fidelity testing in the beginning can have a big impact on the final high-tech product. With this knowledge we will continue to embrace and make use of paper prototyping within the future.
As "recorder of notes" during the usability testing sessions, my curiosity was piqued by what seemed like a universal desire of users to do the test “right.” This recognition as facilitators invites us to begin a testing session by creating an environment that encourages users to approach the tasks with a “beginner’s mind” while fostering exploration and championing curiosity.
Something surprising we learned from the experience is that testing around a half dozen users really can give you sufficient and concrete feedback. Anything above and beyond five or six test subjects and the results begin to level out. Another point of recognition is how innate it is to want the user to succeed. It was difficult to not intervene in the process and allow a user to find their own way when it was clear they were struggling to complete a task and waiting for a prompt to help move them forward.
One thing we discovered that we would like to understand more of coming out of the experience is how to better lead a user through a test while adapting to the ripples of the unknown questions and obstacles that might emerge while conducting a paper prototype test, questions and obstacles that signal expectations that seem innate to human behavior.
The pinnacle of doing anything well in life is finding the Zen within it. By learning how to better facilitate a testing session, and ensuring a user’s comprehension of the tasks asked of them, we can be confident that the results and future iterations will develop a user-friendly product the consumer will trust and devote their loyalty to for the long haul. Finding the Zen in user experience testing, or allowing the Zen in UX to find us, most certainly will ensure this success.
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To understand more about what paper prototyping is, visit http://www.paperprototyping.com/what.html
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