Blogs

Usability tests don’t have to be expensive or require a lot of technology. The real value is not in the equipment or technology but in the technique. Usability testing is not a focus group. Nor is usability testing a product demo. You shouldn’t lead participants through a product as if it were a demo and ask them if they “like” something. Uncovering problems users encounter

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The SUPR-Q (Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire) is a standardized questionnaire that measures the quality of the website user experience. It’s an 8-item instrument that’s gone through multiple rounds of psychometric validation and is used by hundreds of organizations around the world. Here’s a list of 10 essential things to know about the SUPR-Q. 1. It’s derived from research and refined across studies. Instead

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You don’t need a dedicated usability lab to conduct a usability test. But if you or your organization conducts more than the occasional usability test, which it probably should (another topic in itself), you may want to consider setting up a dedicated usability lab. Having a dedicated space for testing is a hallmark of organizations with high UX maturity. Organizations rated as mature in UX

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Unmoderated testing platforms allow for quick data collection from large sample sizes. This has enabled researchers to answer questions that were previously difficult or cost prohibitive to answer with traditional lab-based testing. But is the data collected in unmoderated studies, both behavioral and attitudinal, comparable to what you get from a more traditional lab setup? Comparing Metrics There are several ways to compare the agreement or

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Do you like standing in line at the DMV? How do you register a new business? Who is your state representative in Congress? Over the last decade, many US states have begun to digitize a lot of their services. This results (hopefully) in less standing in line, less time waiting on hold, and fewer people needed by the state to answer basic questions. It’s not

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Small differences in design changes can have large consequences on website purchases. But detecting these small differences (e.g. 2%–10% changes) through behaviors and attitudes has generally not been feasible from traditional lab-based testing due to the time and costs of recruiting and facilitator costs/time. With unmoderated testing, organizations can now collect data from hundreds to thousands of participants quickly and from around the world to

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In Benchmarking the User Experience, I write about the importance of a regular plan for quantifying the user experience of your websites, apps, or devices. This involves collecting metrics, usually at both task and study levels. But the point of benchmarking isn’t just to collect metrics to put on a dashboard, it’s to ultimately improve them. A common question we receive when conducting benchmark studies

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What does 4.1 on a 5-point scale mean? Or 5.6 on a 7-point scale? Interpreting rating scale data can be difficult in the absence of an external benchmark or historical norms. A popular technique used often by marketers to interpret rating scale data is the so-called “top box” and “top-two box” scoring approach. For example, on a 5-point scale, such as the one shown in Figure

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Your car doesn’t start on some mornings. Your computer crashes at the worst times. Your friend doesn’t show up to your dinner party. If something or someone isn’t reliable, it’s not only a pain but it makes your life less effective and less efficient. And what is true for people and products is true for measurement. The wording of items and the response options we

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Where do you get your news? Do you think it’s objective? Do you trust it? Fewer people are relying on print (newspapers and magazines) and even TV for their news. Print subscriptions continue to decline and almost half of Americans report getting their news online, nearly the same as TV news. Despite the evolution of the news “interface” from print and TV to digital, many of

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