Best Practices for Running Usability Tests Tutorial

1. Introduction

Goal: This tutorial is aimed at helping web developers and designers understand and implement best practices for running usability tests.

Learning Outcome: By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to plan, execute, and analyze usability tests more effectively.

Prerequisites: Basic understanding of web development and design principles. Familiarity with usability testing tools would be helpful, but not required.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Usability testing is all about understanding how end-users interact with your website or application. The first step is to plan your test.

Plan Your Test

1. Identify your users and create personas: Understand who will be using your website. Create personas to represent these users.

2. Define tasks: Identify the tasks that you want your users to perform during the test.

3. Prepare your script: Develop a script for guiding your users through the tasks.

Execute Your Test

1. Choose your testing method: Decide whether you want to conduct moderated or unmoderated tests.

2. Choose your testing environment: This could be a lab setting, or remote testing.

3. Conduct the test: Guide your users through the tasks while observing and noting their interactions.

Analyze Your Test

1. Review the data: Go through the video recordings, notes and any other data collected.

2. Identify usability issues: Look for patterns and common issues that users faced.

3. Make recommendations: Based on your findings, suggest improvements.

3. Code Examples

While usability testing doesn't typically involve coding, there are tools that can help you analyze your tests. Here's an example of how you can use Google Analytics to track user interactions.

// Google Analytics event tracking code
ga('send', 'event', [eventCategory], [eventAction], [eventLabel], [eventValue], [fieldsObject]);

• eventCategory (required): The category of the event you're tracking (e.g., 'button').
• eventAction (required): The action taken (e.g., 'click').
• eventLabel (optional): Additional information for the event (e.g., 'signup button').
• eventValue (optional): A numerical value associated with the event (e.g., '1').

The above code sends an event hit to Google Analytics whenever a user interacts with a specific element on your website.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we covered the basics of planning, executing, and analyzing usability tests. We also looked at how you can use Google Analytics to track user interactions.

To further your learning, consider experimenting with different usability testing tools and methods. You can also read more about usability testing in the resources linked below.

5. Practice Exercises

1. Plan a Usability Test: Choose a website or application and plan a usability test for it. Create user personas, define tasks, and prepare a script.

2. Conduct a Usability Test: Conduct the usability test you planned. You can use friends, family, or colleagues as test participants. Observe their interactions and note any issues they face.

3. Analyze Your Test: Review the data you collected during the test. Identify any usability issues and make recommendations for improvements.

Remember, the goal of usability testing is to understand your users better and create a more user-friendly website or application. Practice regularly to improve your usability testing skills.