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Tools & Tactics

The Joys of User Testing

A quick guide with tools and videos on how, when, and why we should engage users to ensure we develop tools and processes that are more equitable, effective, and efficient.

What is user testing?

User testing is a design method for learning how an intended audience would respond to or use a product, service, or communication. This is done by presenting prototypes to the people who would be seeing or using the final version and observing how they interact with, the prototypes. The traditional approach is to launch something and then find out afterwards that certain aspects about it worked well or didn’t work well, but unfortunately it’s usually too late to do anything about it. User testing simulates the real thing, allowing us to learn early enough to make changes and avoid pitfalls that may not be obvious to us, but are obvious to the intended audience. The best part is that user testing can be quick and relatively low effort!

Why test with users?

User testing can come at various points in your process. You can test your existing tools, services, and information with users, to learn where you may need to improve. You can test new tools, services, and information while you are developing them. You can also test after you launch or pilot something new, before doing a full roll-out. Any user testing is better than none! We recommend testing materials you want to launch with your stakeholders and users before implementing them so that you are able to reflect on your upcoming change before investing staff time and resources.

Watch this video by Nielsen-Norman Group to learn more about why you should test your products and services, and how you might do it.

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Your user research can be loosely structured or planned to the T. You can download user testing and reporting

templates from HubSpot⁠

to start user testing. One easy way to work towards greater equity in your tools and services is to collect demographic information on feedback questionnaires, then compare who you are hearing from to the demographics of the population you are serving, noting any differences in experience across demographic groups.

Here’s a quick case study in how Athletic Greens uses User Testing to learn from their customers and enhance their product every single time.

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User testing for current product or service

Local government services and products are omnipresent, and while we may not always have the resources we need to review the needs of our customers as we update our products and services. This section more specifically dives into how you can approach your customers to listen and interview them to gain insight into your current product or an upcoming iteration.

How to engage users and stakeholders?

Listening

Listening is a key part of understanding the challenges you and your stakeholders may be facing. Listening should come at several points of your process to develop solutions: it can tell you about the problems and challenges that exist; it can help you gather feedback on ideas; and it is also how you test changes or new services at early stage. User testing and interviewing are methods that employ listening to gathering qualitative information about your tools, information or services.

Learn more about the importance and ways of listening with these videos:

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Interviewing

When you go out to learn from your users, you could use a tool, like a survey, to get feedback, or simply ask them questions. The video below has great information on what you might need to conduct an interview. We suggest semi-structured as a great way to engage in a conversational manner.

Interviewing is a hard skill to catch on, here is a quick video on the different kind of videos you can start with to learn from your users and customers.

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User testing for upcoming product or service

Testing for a new products and services can be more challenging because it is more generative and connecting the dots and identifying the need is difficult. User testing in the early stages can be about understanding user needs, getting feedback on prototypes, or capturing early responses on the launched product or service. Starting with how to set your research anchors and define your challenges, below you can review materials that will help you understand your users before talking to them.

How might we define the problems and develop insights?

Understanding the problems you are trying to solve is a huge part of how you’ll be developing prototypes and tools to address the challenge. So, what does it mean to ‘define a problem’? Imagine trying to carry a giant beach ball: no matter how you adjust your hold, it keeps falling because it is too big to really wrap your arms around it, and in the moments where you do have it in your grip, you can’t see where you are going because it blocks everything else from view. That’s precisely what happens when we try to solve a problem that’s bigger than what we can handle. Defining the problem is essentially defining the size of the challenge you are trying to address. A properly defined challenge provides strong parameters to help focus in on the crux of the issue. That deeper understanding of a clearly defined problem is a strong foundation for developing the insights and generating the inquiry questions that will lead to more effective solutions. You can use IDEO.org’s design kit and videos shared here to learn how to

create insight statements⁠

and

ask questions that turn those insights into opportunities⁠

Here is a quick guide on how you can create your own research and guiding questions.

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What comes after problem definition?

There are several ways to proceed from here, based on how small or big the problem is. After you have defined your problem and understand the size of the challenge you are tackling, you can come together as a team to dig into root causes of the problem, trace the user experience to pinpoint challenges, or map the environment to better understand the systems and levers involved in addressing the challenge. Here are some methods to get you started:

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Root Cause Analysis⁠

: Root cause analysis is the process of discovering the root causes of problems in order to identify appropriate solutions. It assumes that it is much more effective to systematically prevent and solve for underlying issues rather than just treating ad hoc symptoms and putting out fires.

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Mapping the User Journey⁠

: A journey map is a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. In its most basic form, journey mapping starts by compiling a series of user actions into a timeline. Next, the timeline is fleshed out with user thoughts and emotions in order to create a narrative. This narrative is condensed and polished, ultimately leading to a visualization.

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Stakeholder Mapping⁠

: Stakeholder mapping is the visual process of laying out all the stakeholders of a product, project, or idea on one map. The main benefit of a stakeholder map is to get a visual representation of all the people who can influence your project and how they are connected.

User testing in local government

One of the biggest questions of user testing is who else is doing this work in local government. While there are many and incredible teams including residents in the government’s process here are three examples for you.

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usagov-usability-test-reports.pptx

5.9 MB

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Why test with users?

User testing for current product or service

How to engage users and stakeholders?

User testing for upcoming product or service

How might we define the problems and develop insights?

What comes after problem definition?

User testing in local government

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