A small discussion on user research & testing
This week, Wiliam is making a presentation to the students of Billy Blue School of Design to help explain the importance of user testing and user research. In the presentation we used the subheadings ‘why, who, what and how’ in regards to implementing user research and testing. So we will start off with the ‘why’. The main reason that user testing is so important is because making assumptions about how a site will work for the user is dangerous. At the end of the day the user, is who determines if the site is successful or not, therefore designers can’t just make assumptions of what is a good user journey. We are experts in the field of the web yet the users aren’t.
UX/UC design is User Centric design which places the user at the centre of the design. So it is important to not only identify who your target audience will be, but also what needs or requirements they would want to get out of your website.
Some websites show poor use of usability research with the most common problems being inconsistency, poor page layout, mystery navigation and ambiguous titles.
With the ‘what’ subheading we are looking at what is user research. This involves aspects such as market research, polling, personas and focus groups. The presentation then explains how user research is implemented. This involves things such as analytics, card sorting, prototypes/wireframes and finally usability testing. Usability testing is highly important because it allows designers and information architects to discover how users perceive and understand the site before it has gone live. This allows for any additional changes or suggestions from the users themselves.
