Gebruikerstesten¶
Quote
Experimenteer er op los! Check je aannames, ontdek je fouten, en stuur bij.
Natuurlijk is het beter om een gebruikerstest uit te voeren met gebruikers die de beoogde doelgroep vertegenwoordigen. En wanneer je de tijd, middelen en mensen hebt, zou je dat ook echt moeten doen. Maar wanneer je even snel een idee wil krijgen of je ontwerp werkt of niet, helpt het om iemand met een frisse blik je ontwerp te laten gebruiken en zo vanuit een ander perspectief naar je werk te kijken en nieuwe inzichten te krijgen.
Voor dit doel kun je heel goed een quick-and-dirty gebruikerstest uitvoeren.
Tip
Leg je bevindingen vast in een Feedback-grid zodat je de inzichten kunt gebruiken voor het verbeteren van je ontwerp.
Hieronder volgen verschillende methoden om gebruikerstesten uit te voeren. De vraag, tijd en het product bepalen welke type test het beste past in jouw situatie.
Playtest¶
Een playtest is een vorm van een gebruikerstest. Deze vorm wordt veel bij games gebruikt om de aannamens die gemaakt zijn tijdens het Game Design (ontwerpproces) te valideren.
Een aantal interessante vragen die je helpen bij het opzetten van een playtest kun je hier vinden:
Guide to playtest questions 10 Insightful Playtest Questions What To Do After The Playtest
Tip
Zoek vooral nog meer bronnen die informatie geven over het opstellen, uitvoeren en analyseren van een playtest voor games.
How to get good feedback on your game¶
The 5 second usability test¶
Quick-and-Dirty usability test¶
Bron: Leah Buley (2013). The User Experience Team of One - A Research and Design Survival Guide. (pp 202-203). Rosenfeld.
Can people use this product/game as intended? The essence of the quick-and-dirty usability test is that you do it quickly—like the name says. With this method, you’ll forego rigor and perfectionism to make it possible to get rapid feedback on designs. You’ll let go of recruiting and scheduling time with real users and just test the designs with anyone who’s available. Think of it as putting the design in front of the first person you find (who is unfamiliar with the product/game) and seeing if they can make sense of it.
Use when:
- At any point during the design process when you want to do a quality check on the designs.
- As often as possible to check your work along the way.
Average time: As little as 10 or 15 minutes per person, whenever you need it.
Oefening
1. Find someone, anyone As you’re working on a design, when you want to see if it makes sense to others, print out the design or grab your laptop and wander over to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. This could be someone who sits in the desk next to yours, someone you encounter walking down the hall or in the cafeteria, or if you truly work alone, a friend or family member.
2. Ask them what they’re seeing and how they think it works Think about the purpose of the page, screen, or section of the design that you’re working on. What are the main things people should be able to use it for? With this list of primary tasks in mind, show your design to your volunteer. Ask her how she thinks she could interact with this design to accomplish a particular task. If there are multiple screens or steps that you’re designing, proceed through each screen, asking her to explain what she’s seeing and what she would do to advance to the next step. That may only take 5 minutes, or it might take 20.
3. Find a few more volunteers Once you’ve shown your design to one person, try to find a few more people to run through the same process. Your colleagues may enjoy getting involved, since it’s a break from their normal routine and shows that you value their perspective.
4. Iterate the designs If you identify anything that’s especially confusing to people or that they interpreted differently than you had intended, go back and revise the design.
Tip
- Not for expert users. Quick-and-dirty usability tests are preferable for products that don’t have a highly technical purpose or audience (where the average person has a better chance of being a reasonable stand-in for your actual users). If you do have a very technical product and you’re trying to run a quick-and-dirty usability test, you should try to find someone who is a good stand-in for a typical user. At a minimum, you may need to spend a few minutes up front explaining some concepts and terminology.
- Be willing to stop and fix things. If you discover after your first few conversations that something in the new design is just not working for people, stop and fix the design before continuing. Ultimately, it’s more productive to test three different designs of progressively improving quality with two people each than to test one bad design with six people
- If you work remotely… Enlist the help of family, friends, acquaintances, or people you meet on the street.