Howdy everyone! Welcome to this weeks' usabili-
Well that was embarrassing. How does one even test a blog post any-hoots? Bah, whatever, today's topic I won't actually be talking about usability testing...but instead I will talk about DISCOUNT usability testing.
Who doesn't like a discount?
Well...I don't!
It gives me an excuse to impulse buy. So if everyone can stop asking for discounts...that would be great...
A TROJAN HORSE APPEARS! Before I can talk about discount usability I should BRIEFLY go over the basics of usability testing. It'll be quick, I promise.
The gist of usability testing is to see how users respond to the product that you are creating. To do this they either have people out of the team test the product or they get experts to give their professional opinion on the product. All this testing allows the designers to figure out what's relevant, what's working and how the product is performing as expected.
Usability testing isn't always the best strategy to evaluate your product. Recently, there has been a rise to a new method for testing your product. That's right, you've guessed it! The dreaded DISCOUNT usability testing!
Here's a rundown of the dreaded discount usability taken from this article by Jakob Nielson:
1. A more simpler approach to usability testing. Having more isn't always better. Sometimes having 3-5 testers is not only cheaper but can be more efficient in garnering useful results.
2. Paper protoypes! No need to spend hours upon hours designing algorithms and programs if you know what you want in your product. Write it down in a paper prototype and see what your users focus on in testing. Not only is this suuuuppeerrr cheap, it's also extremely fast since all you have to do is draw random doodles on paper.
3. Heuristic Evaluation! What is this? I don't know, let me google this real quick so you don't have to.
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Got it! Heuristic evaluation is when the product is reviewed by a small set of people who follow guidelines called heuristics. There are 10 of them, and unfortunately, I can't go over all of them. Therefore I'll leave this link here, and just list a couple: visibility of the product's status, common language, user control, consistency, error prevention, recognition, flexibility, aesthetic and a couple more. Following these guidelines lets the designers think more from the user's perspective and gives them a better chance to create a product tailored for the consumer.
Now that you know more about discount usability testing, it's a little obvious why it's better than the old draconian methods of the old usability testing. Due to the cheaper nature of discount testing, it also means more tests and quicker results.
So on you go with this new found knowledge! At the end of the day none of this matters because the consumers will always find something wrong with your product regardless of your limitations! Life just isn't fair...
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