As a UX designer, your responsibility is to constantly enhance your knowledge about the users you are designing for so you can build a comprehensive product that meets the users’ genuine needs. To ensure you are on the right trajectory, it is pivotal to gather feedback. One method to do so is by collecting feedback directly from your target audience through the means of usability studies.

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Remember, a usability study is an objective examination strategy that evaluates how simple it is for users to finish core tasks in a design. Often this research method is also referred to as usability testing — both wordings are acknowledged.

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Usability studies are great to help you and your team understand how real users engage with your product and how well it addresses their issues. A huge advantage of usability studies is that they are relatively economical from a business perspective meaning that the reward is higher than the associated risk. There are two sorts of usability testings that you can conduct. We will now take a closer look at them.

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Moderated usability studies

This type of testing requires an individual, known as a mediator, to guide test users through the study. Since the moderator facilitates the entire testing session, it can help the participant open up and share more insights about the design. Moderated usability studies work best when you intend to dive into the subtleties since you can ask follow-up questions all through the testing session to find out more profound feedback.

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Unmoderated usability studies

During unmoderated usability studies, participants test the design in form of a prototype without human interference. More precisely, test users navigate through the study in their natural environment, such as at home, and at their desired time and pace. To evaluate the outcome, this study is normally recorded on video so the UX team can review the footage afterward. Unmoderated usability studies can be profitable on the grounds that they more intently mimic how a user would engage with the product in reality.

Regardless of the type of study you choose to run, some things will remain the same:

• Participants ought to be illustrative of the product’s target audience and ought to line up with the personas you made before in the design cycle. All in all, individuals in the usability study are supposed to have the qualities that align with the users of your product.
• Tasks you give to the participants should reflect actions that a real user would perform in your product. This could be something like changing your address or completing a checkout process.
• When conducting the research study, you should walk every participant through the same script, in the same order, to promote consistency.

A final important remark from my side is that I would highly recommend conducting usability studies along your design process. Obviously, the quantity of testings you direct relies upon your project’s timetable, objectives, and spending plan. Yet, these studies can happen with low- and high-fidelity prototypes as well with a finished product. However, the earlier you test the easier it is to make quick and feasible adjustments.

And that’s a wrap! If you enjoyed this article, I would greatly appreciate your support via clapping and/or sharing it with fellows. Have an awesome day and until next time 👋🏻

— Carina