Ask People to Accomplish Tasks for User Testing

Building high-quality software is still more of an art than science, especially with the preponderance of different opinions to accomplish even the simplest of functionality. With the rise of open source software, great web development frameworks (e.g. Rails), and lighter languages (e.g. Ruby) it is cheaper and faster to build web applications. It’s hard to make an app easy. It really is difficult.

One of the best ways to do user testing is to grab a person who hasn’t used the software before, give them a gift certificate or pizza, and ask them to accomplish tasks in the product. That’s it. Don’t ask about the color scheme, positioning of icons, or arrangement of navigation links. Simply ask for some deliverables and get out of their way.

A critical part of this process is to not lead them on asking “what did you think about X” while they’re in the middle of the process. Too often product managers and co-founders are so excited about the product that they can influence the activities of the tester. It is best to make the desired tasks black and white and put them in front of the tester and have he or she go to town.

What else? What other recommendations do you have for user testing?