What is lab usability testing?(Demo)

Lab usability tests measure a user’s ability to complete tasks. In a typical usability test, a user attempts to complete a task or set of tasks using a web site (or software or a product).
Each of these tasks have a specified goal with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction identified in a specified context of use.
A typical study will have eight to twelve participants who participate in the test. Early on during these tests with as few as five users patterns begin to emerge that highlight what parts of the customer experience or process and working well and which are causing problems.
Tests can be conducted with live version of the website, beta versions, on-screen HTML or PowerPoint prototypes, or even with paper printouts. These paper prototypes, sometimes called wire-frames, approximate what a user might otherwise see on a computer screen, but save the development team from having to produce an on-screen product.
Usability tests are typically held in a specially designed room called a usability lab. The lab is split into two rooms that are divided by a one-way mirrored window that allows observers to watch the test without being seen by the test subject. However, you can conduct a usability lab without a lab. All you need is a room with a computer in it and a promise from all test observers that they will remain silent and out of the test subject’s sight (that is, behind them) throughout the test.
As the test subjects work on their tasks, a test moderator observes. The moderator takes notes on the user’s actions, and records whether or not the participant is able to complete the task, in what length of time, and taking what steps. While the participant is working at their task, the moderator limits their own interactions to providing initial task instructions and occasionally prompting the participant to further explain their comments.
How to conduct a test:
There are four different stages to conducting a successful Lab Usability test.
1.Preparation:

• Identifying what the critical tasks are that we are testing for. (For example for amazon.com: How easy it is for our customers to return product or request a replacement?)
• For each task create scenarios for the test participant. (For example: You ordered a Sony digital camera from us. When you got the box it was missing a lens cap. You would like to contact amazon for help. What do you do next?)
• For each scenario identify what success looks like. (For example: Found the correct page, abc.html, on the support site, followed the link to the contact amazon web page and filled out a request and hit the submit button.)
• Identify who your test participants should be (new users, existing users, people who shop at competitors sites etc etc).
• Identify compensation structure for the participants.
• Contact a recruiter, in your company or outside, to recruit the right people for you.
• Before you actually do the test with a live person do dry runs with someone internal just to make sure your scripts etc work fine. You’ll find issues in these pilots that you can clean up before you do the real thing.

2.Conducting the test:

• Welcome your participants and orient them to the environment. “You are here at our company and there is a mirror and people are watching you and we are recording this and you can do now wrong so don't worry and relax ."
• Starting with a "think aloud" exercise is a good idea. You want to “hear” what the participants are thinking and this exercise will train them to "talk their thoughts". The main goal is to really understand and uncover the problems they will surely have.
• Have the participants read the tasks aloud, this will make sure they read the whole thing and hence that they understand well what the task / scenario is.
• Now all of you in the company pay attention, close attention. Watch what the participants are doing and observe carefully for the verbal and non verbal clues about where the participants fail in their tasks or if they misunderstand what your web pages say or if they go down the wrong path.
• The moderator can ask the participants follow up questions to get more clarity (but be careful not to give out answers and absolutely watch your own verbal and non verbal clues so as to be as calm and reassuring as you can to the participant).
• Thank the participant in the end and make sure to pay them right away (if you can).

3.Analysis of the data:

• As soon as possible hold a debrief session with all the observers so that everyone can share their thoughts and observations.
• Take time to note down trends and patterns.
• The moderator is responsible for tallying up success and failures by each participants for each task.
• Do a deep dive to identify what the core root causes were for the failures based on actual observations. (For example: The faq answer on the website was too long. Contact Us link was not apparent and hidden below the fold. It was not clear that they could not contact us via phone. Bonus: Almost everyone complained that their expectations were not set about when to expect a reply.)
• Make recommendations to fix the problems identified. Usually create a PowerPoint deck that collects all the scores and then for each critical task 1) Identify the points of failures 2) Make concrete recommendations that will improve the customer experience 3) Categorize the recommendations into Urgent, Important and Nice To Have, to help business decision makers prioritize.

4.Follow up, bug until fixes made, test again and measure success:
Traditional role of UCD Experts / Researchers might end at the above step but their role continues post test result presentation to collaborate with the business owners to keep the momentum with the business owners to fix the problems and offer up their services and UCD expertise to partner with website developers and designers to improve the site experience.

Tips on Lab Usability Tests:

• Make sure you tell the participants that we are testing the website (/product / software) and not testing them. People tend to blame themselves a lot, make sure to stress it is not them and it is not their fault.
• Don’t rely on what people say, focus on their behavior because people often report experiences very different from how they experience them. It is amazing how many times I have observed a completely frustrating (or long) experience from a customer and in the end they rate it as a 4 out of 5. People are just nice, our job is to make up for that by observing (I know that sort of sounds silly).
• Try not to answer their questions when the participants ask you how to do something. Try things like “tell me more” of "if this were the case at your home / office what would you do next".
• This one from above bears repeating: Watch your body language to ensure that you are not giving participants any subtle clues.