Usability is key for the success of a mobile app. One of the best ways to determine if you app is usable to your customers is through usability testing. This will help you think about the app from the user’s perspective. Here are the steps to ensure a successful usability test.
1. User goals
Think about the activities users carry out on your mobile app that you would like to test. Which checkout method is more intuitive and user friendly? Which design features does your app need to boost sales and conversations? Setting viable usability objectives will help you to assess the performance of your application throughout development. And when establishing usability test objectives, be sure to discuss them with your team. Making it a team effort will help assure they are measurable, clarify the goals and all the goal questions are answered accurately.
2. Choose the right test
There are many usability test techniques. Choosing the right technique is important to a successful test project. Here are three of the most common types:
Choosing the right technique is important to a successful test project. | Photo: City University Interaction Lab (Flikr)
Scripted: A scripted test is one of the most common type of usability testing, and is recommended for analyzing the user’s interaction with the product based on set instructions. Scripted tests tend to target more specific goals and individual features.
De-contextualized: It analyzes in a more generalized way and discussing theoretical topics. It is ideal for targeting broad opinions and idea generation.
Natural: This test is recommended for examining the user’s behavior and identifying their feelings with accuracy – by analyzing him/her in their own environment.
After you identify the type of usability test to run, share this with your team and plan accordingly.
3. Create user tasks
Usability user tasks are meant to give you valuable insight. Regardless of whether you do everything right or wrong, usability testing will always work provided you get your user tasks right. Since users tasks are either open or closed, your test should include both.
Closed: This question is asked to confirm or verify, usually eliciting only simple answers.
Open: This is a question, which cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. For example, what factors you take into account when buying a car? These questions normally lead to accurate answers.
4. Write a research plan document
It is important to provide your team a small research plan document about a page and encourage them to actually read it. While keeping everything short and precise, be sure to cover the following key sections: background, goals, questions, tactics, participants, timeline, and test script. Consider advice and suggestions from your team members as well.
5. Carry out the test
Once you have gathered all the feedback from your team, you can now carry out the test. This entails writing the actual test documentation, scheduling times and recruiting the right participants.
6. Write a report
To ensure everyone is on the same page, draft up a quick usability report so as to share the results with your team. As you write the report, keep the following in mind: avoid vagueness, prioritize issues and include recommendations.
Conclusion
Mobile app testing is expensive and time consuming, yet critical to ensure users have a positive experience when they use your app. It is important you ensure that the experience is a great one for every user whenever they use your application. Hopefully, you now understand about the procedure associated with mobile app usability test.