You're building a team for Usability Testing. How do you make sure it's the right one?

1 Define your goals

Before you recruit or assign anyone to your usability testing team, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. What are the main questions you want to answer with your testing? What are the key metrics you want to measure? What are the success criteria for your testing? Having a well-defined goal will help you align your team members with your expectations and priorities.

2 Choose your methods

Depending on your goal, you may need to use different methods of usability testing. For example, you may want to conduct moderated or unmoderated testing, remote or in-person testing, qualitative or quantitative testing, or a combination of these. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and requires different tools and resources. You need to choose the methods that suit your needs and budget, and ensure that your team is familiar with them.

3 Assign your roles

A typical usability testing team consists of several roles, such as a project manager, moderator, note-taker, analyst, and designer. The project manager is responsible for overseeing the testing process, from planning to reporting. They must define the goals, scope, and timeline of the testing, as well as coordinate communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders. The moderator interacts with users during testing, either in person or remotely. They guide users through tasks, ask questions, and observe their behavior and feedback. The note-taker records data and insights from the testing through notes, screenshots, or videos. They capture the user's actions, reactions, comments, and emotions. The analyst analyzes the data and insights from the testing using quantitative or qualitative methods. They identify usability issues, patterns, and recommendations. Finally, the designer designs or changes the product or service being tested based on the results of the testing. Depending on your project size and complexity, you may need more or fewer roles or have one person perform multiple roles. It's important to assign roles based on team members' skills, experience, and availability while ensuring they understand their responsibilities and expectations.

4 Recruit your users

Your usability testing team is not complete without the users who will participate in the testing. They are the ones who will provide you with valuable feedback and insights about your product or service. You need to recruit users who represent your target audience, have relevant characteristics and behaviors, and are willing and able to participate in the testing. You also need to consider how many users you need, how you will recruit them, how you will compensate them, and how you will schedule them.

5 Prepare your materials

Prior to beginning usability testing, you must prepare the materials necessary for the testing, such as a test plan, script, prototype, environment, and consent form. The test plan should outline the goals, methods, tasks, scenarios, questions, and roles of the team. The test script provides instructions, prompts, and probes that the moderator uses to interact with users. The test prototype should be functional, realistic and accessible to users. The test environment should simulate the product or service’s real-world context in a comfortable and quiet setting with necessary tools and devices. Additionally, a consent form must inform users about the purpose, process and risks of the testing. It is important to review these materials with team members and stakeholders to make sure they are clear, consistent and accurate.

6 Conduct your testing

Once you have everything ready, you can start your usability testing with your users. You need to follow your test plan and script, and use your test prototype and environment, to guide the users through the tasks and scenarios that you want to test. You need to observe, listen, and ask questions, without leading, influencing, or interrupting the users. You need to record the data and insights, either by taking notes, screenshots, or videos, or using tools like eye-tracking or heat maps. You need to thank the users for their participation, and provide them with the compensation that you agreed on.

Usability testing is a team effort that requires planning, coordination, and communication. By following these tips, you can build a team that can conduct effective usability testing and help you improve your product or service.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?