Although it doesn't cover my specialist focus, I found our visit to Clearleft very useful for a number of reasons. It gave me a good insight into how designers test their work and how the process of iterative design works. We were also able to take part in user testing workshops, below are my notes from the session:
Setting tasks and finding problems to solve.
When you think you know something, you are probably wrong (accept failure). Usability testing is seeking failure.
Main advantages to User Testing:
Informing design
Growing as a designer
Objectivity in opinion battles
Explore users mental models
Fix problems early
Test assumptions
Stakeholder buy-in
Designers bring a lot of judgement and baggage to a design that should be left out.
Usability (how easy) vs Desirability (How much users want)
Guerrilla Testing:
Pros:
Quick
Easy
Inexpensive
Fed back into design progress
Cons:
Arrange it yourself
Familiarity will introduce bias
Not scientific
Planning:
Introduce
State the goals
Profile test subjects
Subject screener
Outline methodology
Define tasks
Testing script
Post test survey
1 Hour Test:
5 min Intro
10 min interview
40 min tasks
5 min wrap-up
Keep tasks as open as possible
Keep testing until you start to get the same answers (5-10 people)
Doesn’t matter what you test as long as its early and regular.