Plan the Testing

Effective usability testing begins with clear goals, a structured plan, and a well-defined user group. Planning ensures the process runs smoothly and yields actionable insights.

Why it's Important

Clarifies what you want to learn from the test.
Helps recruit participants that represent the target audience.
Ensures tests are focused and efficient.

How to Implement

Define Objectives: Decide what aspects of the product you want to evaluate.
Select Participants: Recruit users who align with your personas or target audience.
Choose Testing Methods: Select remote, in-person, moderated, or unmoderated testing.
Develop Tasks: Create realistic scenarios for users to complete.
Prepare Materials: Include prototypes, consent forms, and recording tools.

Available Workshops

Objective Definition Workshop: Collaborate on identifying key goals for usability testing.
Persona Mapping: Use personas to recruit the right participants.
Task Prioritization: Rank the most critical tasks to test.
Scenario Creation: Write clear, goal-oriented test scenarios.
Method Selection Workshop: Align the team on the most effective testing method.

Deliverables

Usability testing plan.
List of recruited participants.
Scenarios and tasks for testing.

How to Measure

Clarity of objectives and tasks.
Relevance of participant demographics to target users.
Team alignment on the testing method and goals.

Real-World Examples

Slack

Planned usability tests for onboarding to ensure smooth adoption by teams.

Google

Google Maps: Tested navigation scenarios to evaluate usability for diverse users.

Spotify

Validated music discovery and playlist creation workflows through scenario-based tests.

Get It Right

Focus objectives on specific user interactions.
Recruit participants who represent your target audience.
Align scenarios with real-world user behaviors.
Ensure all materials are ready before testing begins.
Involve stakeholders in the planning phase.

Don't Make These Mistakes

Skipping goal setting and running unfocused tests.
Recruiting participants outside the target demographic.
Writing unclear or unrealistic task scenarios.
Choosing a testing method that doesn’t fit the objectives.
Failing to align the team on priorities.