It was another busy year on MeasuringU.com with 50 new articles, the release of the 2nd editions of two books, UX Bootcamps in Denver and Rome and talks in London and Chicago. In 2016, our articles were served up to over a million visitors. Thank You! We covered topics including: usability testing, measurement and research
The best-laid plans of researchers often go awry. No matter how carefully a research project is planned, things may still go wrong. There are many threats to the success of a customer research project. At both big and small companies, at agencies and on the client side, research projects can fail to live up to
They’re the stuff of movies, TV shows, and usability labs. One-way mirrors (or two-way mirrors depending on who you ask) are an enduring symbol of interrogation, psychology experiments, focus groups, and usability tests. This special piece of glass is brightly lit from one side to allow people to inconspicuously observe people on the other side.
Facilitation is a valuable skill for collecting data from participants. It’s used extensively with several methods including usability tests, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. A good facilitator can ensure sessions run smoothly, make participants feel comfortable, and extract the right data in even the most challenging situations or with less-than-cooperative participants. Not all studies involving
“I’d like you to think aloud as you use the software.” Having participants think aloud as they use an interface is a cornerstone technique of usability testing. It’s been around for much of the history of user research to help uncover problems in an interface. Despite its popularity, there is surprisingly little consistency on how
You go to your doctor for a checkup. You’re feeling fine but as a matter of procedure, your doctor orders a battery of tests and scans to be sure all is well. She runs 30 tests in total. A few days later she calls and tells you one of the tests came back positive–an indication
It was another busy year on MeasuringU.com with 49 new articles, a new book and UX Bootcamp. In 2015, our articles were served up 2.3 million times to 900,000 visitors. Thank You! We covered topics including the essentials of usability testing, finding the right sample size, and better ways of measuring the customer experience. Here,
While we often talk about usability tests as if there is one type of usability test, the truth is there are several varieties of usability tests. Each type addresses different research goals. Don’t confuse the five usability testing types with the interface type or the testing modes. Interface types are mobile (website or apps), desktop
Speeders are survey participants who finish too quickly, even impossibly quickly. How much do they affect the quality of online research? This question has increasing relevance as online research proliferates, including unmoderated usability studies, since an increasing amount of data comes from paid panel participants. With in-person studies, we see each participant’s engagement level. With
In the fast-paced world of Agile development, where it’s difficult to find time to get data from users, unmoderated remote testing gives us a way to quickly collect feedback on interface design. For example, I recently worked with a web-app product team to determine whether users find their new file manager easier to use than
