Having signed up to a Digital Business course, it was time to complete the first assignment on User Testing of Digital Product. This assignment provided an excellent insight into UX research and the importance of user experience testing in order to ensure your digital product ideas are workable and of value to your target audience.
The first part of the assignment was to create a wireframe for a coffee app. I'm not a coffee drinker (it's tea for me), and I never drink fresh coffee, but the idea was that consumers could order fresh coffee via the app, either beans or ground, and have the coffee delivered to a home address.
Please note, there was no attempt or need in this assignment for me to go out and carefully select a sample of the 'right target audience' for this coffee app! The idea was to go through the process of designing and testing. Had I been working for a commercial organisation or testing a real product, I may have been careful to select people who would be the target user of my app - they would be the ones to perform usability testing on.
It took several attempts to draw the wireframes, and this exercise alone taught me much about UX and the importance of testing.
After creating the wireframe, there was guidance on conducting a UX test. The recommendation is to read out a set of instructions to the participator, in order that all those involved receive the same instructions as far as possible.
As stated, this was my first attempt, and having played it back I could already see where improvements needed to be made to my technique (please note, I'm not a professional researcher with an office, and this User Test had to be conducted in a home), and I highlight these.
One tip I picked up years ago during my marketing training is this:
- when asking a question, add the words 'or not' at then end, because this helps to ensure the questions is open and not leading. For example: "Did you find it useful, or not?"; "Did you feel the instructions were clear, or not?"; and so on.
Also, instead of asking "What did you like/dislike most about...."
ask, "what were some of the things you liked/diliked about"
The reason is that in some scenarios, it is not always easy to select one option, and this creates resistance and wastes time. Potentially, the person would change their mind later anyway. Allowing a person to list a number of things eases the pressure, gets thoughts flowing, and encourages more feedback.
Thank you for watching, and I hope you find this helpful. Thank you to David for allowing this video to be posted on line.
