Usability Testing
“Where the rubber meets the road”
Why are case studies so important and reliable?
Mainly because they involve several hours of observation — careful and attentive observation. They require “an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of a particular case or cases, within a real-world context.”* Commited observation leads to results. By registering something as being noteworthy one can truly grasp or, at least, be aware of its surroundings.
That being said, it seems obvious that, for UX/UI designers, there is nothing better than to observe users experiencing products / services to study and understand their behaviour in the process.
I am still a UX/UI in the making but I can certainly perceive this method as a valuable one.
It was time to start practicing.
The exercise goal was simple: select a few persons with a specific traveler profile, interview them while navigating in a travel agency website and, in the end, make sense of what to improve in a future iteration.
1st observation: people tend to mistake being observerd with being evaluated. It was important to create a comfortable environment where the interviewees felt free to explore and comment. No right or wrong statements.
After a few interviews I could start drawing up a pattern in certain behaviors — a shared frustration. People got stuck — the website workflow didn’t work that well in some specific iterations.
Perfect, I then knew what I could improve, by rethinking, reallocating or even adding elements to certain iterations. However I kept always in mind that as metasearch travel engine it had some constraints that couldn’t be easily solved. Therefore I focused on solvable observed issues.
The website needed simplification — clear out unnecessary information. It also needed to prioratize information — the human being is lazy, it is important to rank information in the right way (for the user).
Visual clarity and smooth achievable actions was what the users aimed for.
The outstanding architect Franl Lloyd Wright once said:
“Form follows function — that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Personally, it applies perfectly in usability testing.
