usability and beyond: how to evaluate your product

Martin Braaten GrinaEdge Academy 2016

Usability and BeyondHow to evaluate your product

What does usability mean?

Easy to useEasy to learnEfficientCreates IdentityPrevents errors

One size doesn’t fit all

We’re never alone

We work in cross-functional teams

Goals and needs(requirements)

Hypothesises and solutions(UX designers)

Prototyping / implementation(UX / developers)

Test / feedback / data(end-users)

Product Development ProcessHow we usually work

Lean Startup

Build

MeasureLearn

We minimise therisk of failing

Design Critique

I am showing [early/mid/late] work

Because [why it’s a problem]

And am looking for feedback around [specific focus for feedback]

Around [the problem]

“It’s immensely helpful to reiterate the problem being solved before showing any work in a critique.”

– Tanner ChristensenProduct Designer @ Facebook

Why is user insight important?

What

For who

How

Why!

“Don’t have time”

“Do we really need that?”

“Way too expensive”

“We have enough data”

“We know that…”

“It’s reasonable to assume that…”

“We expect that…”

User insight protects us from ourselves

…so we don’t get lost in space

QUANTITATIVE

Interviews

Focus groups

Personas

Field studies

Expert evaluations

Card Sorting

BEHAVIORATTITUDE

QUALITATIVE

Usability testing

Eye Tracking

Accessibility evaluation

Perception analysis

Survey Web analysis

Heat Map

Scroll depth

Listening in

QUANTITATIVE

Interviews

Focus groups

Personas

Field studies

Expert evaluations

Card Sorting

BEHAVIORATTITUDE

QUALITATIVE

Usability testing

Eye Tracking

Accessibility evaluation

Perception analysis

Survey Web analysis

Heat Map

Scroll depth

Listening in

What can you usability test?

Paper prototypes

Agile Usability TestingSave time on user-involvement

Guerilla

Quickand specific Low budget Informal

Gonzo

Where theusers are Realistic Quotes

5 second tests

Focuses onfirst impressions

Quantitativeapproach

Frequentiterations

Why agile usability testing?

To get answers within the sprint

Why agile usability testing?

Why agile usability testing?

within the sprintTo get answers the same day

Traditional usability testing takes a week…

Why agile usability testing?

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Why test often?

The obvious reasons…

Quality assurance

Prevent errors

Increase theuser experience

The best UI is no UI“Good design is invisible. Minimum

input, maximum output, with minimal conscious thought.”

– Oliver Reichenstein

Less obvious reasons

Innovation

Try out new interactions

netlight

Who should experience usability testing?

netlight

Everyone

netlight

Should be experienced bythe project team

netlight

Designers

ArchitectsDevelopers

Project Managers

netlight

Management

Marketing DepartmentCustomer Support

netlight

Again, and again…

Fail fast, fail often

7 reasons why good usability pays off

Users find what they’re looking for

High performance rates among your users

Increased sales

Increased customer satisfaction (and they’ll recommend to others)

Increased self-service

Competitive advantage

You avoid losing customers because your service is

difficult to grasp