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The Culture of Usability


More Than Just a Process

At companies where usability testing is a low-key, but constant, part of routine business, people regard it differently. Because it's done frequently, it's perceived as less special. Month after month, as results come back from test after test, everyone on staff begins to understand at a very basic level what usability testing is good for, what sorts of designs work well for the user base, and, most importantly, how to incorporate the findings into the product.

The best way to understand what I mean is to look at an example. The first team I encountered that worked this way was the old Wired Digital staff (Wired Digital is now part of Terra Lycos). The staff had a usability test every two weeks for several years. Product managers would plug away with their team, building product concepts. When they had a something that they sort of liked, they'd show it to Mike Kuniavsky, the research director. Kuniavsky would spend an hour or so writing up a test script, and by the end of the following week they had a short report describing how it worked with users. Scout's honor, it was that simple.

The tests were targeted, so they resulted in specific feedback that was easy to act on. A few days later (or sometimes that afternoon), the product manager would have a new design to improve the interface, which could be launched to the site or put out for testing again in another week. Week after week, products were refined and tested again and again. Over time, the team devised real solutions to difficult usability issues, and product managers came to rely on usability testing as an indispensable development tool.

Anatomy of a Usability Culture

If usability testing had a bumper sticker, it would read: "Make it simple. Do it often." Across the board, you can simplify the usability testing process by reducing the scale. Here are the basics:

Frequency. This is the most important point: test regularly, constantly. All of the "keep it simple" stuff is just a way to make it possible to do tests very often. Wired Digital ran its tests every two weeks, but monthly is a good timeframe to start with. Be sure to put the solutions to the test. The value of this program is in the repeated rounds of testing.

Test Administrator. First, don't hire a consultant. Instead, train a couple of staff members to conduct user testing. There are numerous workshops, instructional books, and online resources that can teach you to do it well. Analytical designers with good listening skills make ideal testers.

Recruiting. A screener is an interview script that recruiters use to find the right participants for your test. This can take some time to prepare, but it doesn't change, so you only have to invest the time once. You can reuse the same document every time, adding the occasional refinement as you think of it.

Number of Participants. Instead of bringing in a large number of test subjects, keep the scope small. I often disagree with usability guru Jakob Nielsen, but he's dead-on when he says that you only need to test with five people to obtain good results. Any more than that yields diminishing returns, so it's usually a waste of time and money.

Facilities. Perform the test in your office. You won't have the fancy one-way glass, but it's easy to hook up a television set and run a cable over to the next room (this is how we did it at Netscape). If you can't do that, it's fine to have one silent observer in the room, but any more is disruptive.

Reporting. Keep reports crisp and to the point. Focus on the key findings. Your staff can't solve all of the problems at once, and because you're testing frequently, there will be plenty of opportunities to address lesser problems.

Immediate Resolution. Develop fixes to the key problems right away—the next day, even—and launch them as soon as they're ready. When you receive feedback from a user test, make the changes immediately. That means not only devising a solution, but also integrating it into the product, launching it on the site, and retesting it if possible.

One thing you shouldn't scrimp on in attempts to cut your budget is professional recruiting. Recruiting is a time-consuming administrative hassle and contributes nothing to your product development acumen. Wired Digital did most of its recruiting in-house. But it took one full-time person to support two rounds of testing per month. It's much more economical to pay a freelance recruiting company.

Cumulative Benefits

Usability is most effective when it's a low-stress activity that has become routine, rather than a special event that requires a lot of attention. It's best when it's like breathing, not surgery.

To begin developing a culture of usability, conduct small, focused, low-cost user tests very frequently. There's a special kind of economy of scale at work here. Over time, the team will come to value the tests as an essential part of the product development process.

With this approach, a larger group of people shares deeper insights over a longer time period. Product refinements become more effective each month, and your customers will feel the cumulative benefit.


Believe it or not, Janice is a consultant. She's a partner with Adaptive Path, and an instructor for SFSU's Multimedia Studies Program.


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