Clinton Companion User Testing
So you’ve done the ideation, the flows, and the prototypes, what now? Finally, it’s time to give it a test.
User testing is a crucial part of the design thinking process, as it marks a point when the product makes it out of the designer's den and is thrown to users to see how successful the solutions are.
But what makes users feedback important? Let’s take a look at some of the background of user testing to see what really makes it important for your next project.
What is User Testing?
In many ways, testing is just what it sounds like. Kristen Baker, writer at HubSpot, describes it well, saying, “User testing involves getting end users and customers to test and evaluate a product, feature, or prototype. Test subjects use the item and identify various pain points and positive attributes so that businesses can enhance their user experience before going to market.”
This testing helps in many ways, as it get it in the eyes of people who will actually use the product, and give us as designers a deeper understanding of how they use it, and what they find easy and useful.
Through this test, we can also gain a variety of information, like how usable a solution is to a user, if the solution is viable, or if the designers need to go back to the drawing board.
So how do we use it?
There are countless ways to do user testing, and much of it comes down to time, size, scale, and personal preference.
For some projects, conducting large-scale surveys about individual aspects or preferences can be helpful in getting a large amount of knowledge about what users like and dislike, helping designers and developers create solutions.
The main way, however, is to give the prototype to users and see how they react. Obviously, the level of “completeness” of these prototypes will vary immensely, so by setting up a way for users to interact with and try the product, you’ll be able to gain some valuable information about how users act.
With this method, it’s crucial to let the user find their own path through the prototype. Try not to help and have them talk out loud about their thoughts and feelings. When they get stuck, note what they’re running into and ask questions about it. Try to find productive actions that you can take forward to the next prototype.
Again, remember this is a prototype. It will have problems, and users are likely to run into problems. That’s why we usually run user tests multiple times across a project to ensure they reach the level we want and that users can find things easily.
Let’s See it in Action!
Ok! Now that we know how to utilize user tests, let's see how we can do it ourselves. I’m going to build upon the My Clinton Companion app that I discussed in my last few blog posts. If you want to read more about the project itself, check out this post!
For this, I am going to do a classic usability test, which means I am getting two potential users, showing them the app, and having them complete a few tasks to see how they navigate through the pages.
My users are going to be a couple of my friends from Quinnipiac University, one of whom actually lives in Clinton with me, Lucas, and another who lives in Hamden, Ariel.
I will first give them a little introduction to the app, discuss some of the features so they don’t feel too thrown in, and go over the tasks that they are going to complete.
For this, they have three tasks:
Register for an Event (Tennis Practice)
Submit a Public Works Issue
Apply for an Expansion Permit (Business)
I will then introduce each task one by one, and ask that they discuss their thoughts and feelings out loud.
Once all three tasks are complete, they are set!
To see the full prototype the users will be navigating, click here!
The first user test was with Lucas:
Lucas overall did very well! He was able to find most of the tasks pretty quickly, with some of the only exceptions coming from the weird business menus that I set up for the permit task.
I think we also see some of the problems with the navigation here. While this is more of a consistency issue, I should ensure that I write the name of every icon on the bottom of each screen so that users can quickly go back to the main page or know what the icon is so they don’t get confused.
Another crucial aspect is my handwriting, which I will attempt to improve on as well so that is a nonfactor on the prototype.
Now, the second user test with Ariel:
Ariel also did pretty well! She found all of the tasks, and even though she stumbled a bit on the section on business resources, where she clicked around in the bottom menus for a bit, she eventually found the path forward and got through the flow.
Again, for this test, I wanted to try to remove the bad handwriting aspect of it, so I gave a brief overview of the bottom menu bar so she could navigate around more easily without trying to decipher what I wrote.
Overall, these tests proved to be useful for identifying crucial problems in the current prototype. Now, let’s find out takeaways.
Takeaways
After completing the user tests, there were a few changes I wrote down in order to improve usability and simplicity for the user:
Change business screen layout in order to improve readability and ease of use.
Change flow for business section so that there are less screens to flip through.
Update cards on home screen so they are bigger and easier to read.
Make buttons clearer and headings more apparent as clickable links.
Make scrolling sections more apparent so that users don’t have to random click to find next screen.
Unify search bars so that they are consistent across screens, and sections.
Change layout of event screen to make more sense, and have register button at the top by the header image.
Add screens for homepage search bar.
All of these, I believe, address the main issues that I found when conducting my user tests and should help make my project even easier to use for new users coming in.
Conclusion
Overall, user testing is key for any designer trying to implement their product in the world. Often, in the confines of a designer’s room or on a project team, we feel like we know what’s best or what works, but the moment it reaches users, it no longer makes sense.
This helps ground us in many ways and ensures we are making the best products for everyone.
To see my full project about user testing, click here or scroll down!
Baker, K. (2022, October 6). User testing: The ultimate guide. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/service/user-testing
Dam, R. F., & Siang, T. Y. (2024, April 22). Stage 5 in the design thinking process: Test. The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-5-in-the-design-thinking-process-test
Nielsen, J. (2018, May 25). User testing: Why & how (Jakob Nielsen). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8JJrDvQDF4