How can you validate user needs and behavior with Usability Testing?

1 Define your goals

Before you start usability testing, you need to define your goals and research questions. What do you want to learn from your users? What are the key tasks or scenarios that you want to test? How will you measure success and satisfaction? Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. They should also align with your business objectives and user expectations.

2 Choose your methods

When it comes to usability testing, there are different methods you can use depending on your goals, resources, and context. Moderated testing involves observing and interacting with users as they complete tasks on your product. You can do this in person or remotely, and ask questions and provide guidance. Unmoderated testing involves letting users complete tasks without any intervention from you. This can be done remotely and at scale using tools or platforms to record their actions, comments, and emotions. Lastly, guerrilla testing involves approaching potential users in public places to get quick and informal feedback on your product's usability and appeal. This can be done in person or remotely.

3 Recruit your participants

To get valid and reliable results from usability testing, you need to recruit participants who accurately represent your target users. Define user personas and criteria for selecting participants, as well as how many participants are needed for each method and how to recruit them. You can use various sources and channels to find participants, such as existing customers or users, social media followers or email subscribers, personal or professional network, and online platforms or services that specialize in user recruitment.

4 Prepare your materials

Conducting usability testing requires preparation of materials and tools. Depending on the chosen method, you may need a prototype or version of your product that is ready for testing, a test script or guide outlining tasks, scenarios, and questions for each session, a consent form or agreement informing participants about the purpose, process, and privacy of the testing, a recording device or software capturing screen, audio, and video of the participants, and a note-taking tool or template to document observations and insights from the testing.

5 Conduct the testing

Conducting usability testing requires following a plan and materials. Depending on the method you use, you may need to schedule and confirm the sessions with participants, set up the testing environment and equipment, welcome and introduce the participants to the testing, explain the tasks, scenarios, and questions to the participants, observe and listen to them as they interact with your product, ask follow-up questions, and thank them for their time and feedback.

6 Analyze the results

Analyzing the results of usability testing requires reviewing and synthesizing the data and feedback collected. Depending on your method, you may need to watch and transcribe recordings of the sessions, organize and categorize notes and observations, identify and quantify usability issues, highlight key findings, and create a report or presentation summarizing the results and recommendations. Additionally, you should prioritize the metrics, such as errors, completion rates, time, and satisfaction.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?