Usability Testing
Prepare yourself to be humbled.
Observe real people as they interact with and react to the interface, and identify areas for improvement along the way.
Watch real people attempt a task in a working product, or let an impartial moderator accompany users through a rapid prototype to gather early impressions and reactions.
Our usability testing process
Although usability testing is focused on how users complete tasks in prototypes or live products, the process is similar to that of user interviews, which are geared around understanding the problem space.
Identifying the questions you need to answer
The interview process starts with identifying tasks and questions. What are the key things a user must do in order to be successful? What parts of the design were most hotly debated?
If we’re testing our own designs, we’ll create a rapid prototype based on the goals and scope of the study.
Recruiting the right participants
Together, we identify screening criteria for research participants and define a recruiting strategy. If we’ve conducted prior user interviews for your product, we’ll return to the screening criteria used in the past as a jumping off point. Depending on the criteria, we might recruit from a panel, or work with you to connect with contacts in your organization’s network.
We set up the communications you’ll need and the scheduling experience so that prospective participants know what’s going on at all times. Then, we’ll partner with you on an interview guide rooted in the questions we’ve identified together.
Leading the sessions
Once participant interviews are scheduled, we will conduct one-on-one moderated interviews, asking users to attempt pre-planned tasks, and share their reactions and thoughts. You can watch these interviews in real time and debrief with us after each session to discuss thoughts and observations. With participants’ permission, interviews will be recorded.
Analysis and insights
After the interviews are complete, we will synthesize what we heard and create a final presentation that ranks the identified opportunities from nice-to-have to critical. In a working session, we will review, discuss, and triage the findings.
If we’re testing our own designs, we can then apply the indicated refinements, to further enhance the planned user experience before a developer even lifts a finger.
““I’ve always been impressed with their thoughtful approach, but especially their user testing and the information they were able to extract from users.””
More about how usability testing works
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Usability testing often includes the following milestones:
Usability kickoff
Establish tasks and stimuli
Define participant screening criteria and/or recruiting pool
Determine incentives
Participant screening review
Interview guide review
Moderated interviews & debriefs
Distribution of incentives to participants
Workshop to review themes, findings, and recommendations
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Usability testing often includes the following deliverables:
Participant screener & scheduling workflow
Interview guide
Participant incentives
Recordings and transcripts from user interviews
Presentation of findings and recommendations
Notes from the review session
Recordings of all meetings & sessions
Ready to talk specifics?
Book a free consultation to dig into pricing and timeline.
Why Slide UX?
We’re experts in UI design, user research, and UX strategy.
We're consistently ranked among the top 5 UX agencies worldwide based on client ratings, but we maintain a humble and down-to-earth culture.
We’re going to be here for you. We’ve been in business for 11+ years, and we’ve served nearly 200 product and marketing leaders in a range of industries.
Our flexible agreements allow you to scale resources up and down as needed over time, from part-time to a full team.
Our team is fully US-based, and dedicated to excellent responsiveness and communication. Sliders are employees (not contractors), and receive continuous training to stay up-to-date.
As a woman-owned family business, we genuinely care about each client.