Why You Should Outsource Usability Testing
Small companies should consider outsourcing their usability testing instead of doing it in-house. On the surface, it makes perfect sense to have a designer/developer who has a deep understanding of the project be in charge of usability testing, but in fact this can cause serious problems.
A developer will always look at the product you are testing from the inside out. They have internalized the entire product and know it inside and out. This has negative connotations on the evaluation of a test.
It may be appealing to delegate usability testing to a graphic designer on the project, but this also has issues. Artists minds are naturally focuses on aesthetics and many usability problems arise from confusing visual elements.
Most importantly, involving your development team in the administration of usability tests can cause a conflict of interest. Often problems arise that are difficult to implement. When a developer/designer is involved, the importance of these problems tend to get pushed down the priority list or worse, ignored completely. There is often something “cooler” to work on, or they do not understand just how large the problem actually is.
During review, problems may dismissed with an excuse: “the product works fine, it’s just not as intuitive as it could be. We should focus on fixing bugs first.” While I agree that bugs should be fixed, we should do a better job prioritizing what we should work on next. Fixing a usability problem on a key feature can be more important than fixing a broken feature which is less prominent.
The Ideal Situation
In my experience the best solution is to delegate usability testing to someone outside of the development process. In an enterprise, this may mean involving a customer support person, or even hiring someone for that job.
For small companies, I always recommend outsourcing usability testing to a 3rd party who has a genuine interest in the success of the product. This ensures that quality tests are established and the results are unbiased. The usability consultant should review his findings with the development team as a whole so that excuses can be avoided.
D-I Can Help
We are available for hire for usability testing and user research projects. If interested, please contact Josh Walsh.
About Josh Walsh
Josh Walsh is a Managing Partner at Designing Interactive. He's also an award winning designer, author and speaker on the topics of User Experience Design, User Interface Design and Usability Research. You can follow him on twitter at: @joshwalsh
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Beth
Impartiality of the person executing the test is extremely important, just as you want to be sure the test scenarios are objective, you want to be sure the interaction of the facilitator with the test subject is also.
That’s why at Progressive we have our own facilitator. When we usability test the developer is in the room, but our facilitator approves the test scenario and questions beforehand, and makes sure the test is carried out with the most scientific and objective means possible.
If your in house resources are limited, you just need someone as a facilitator who hasn’t worked on the project, just like you said a customer support person etc.
February 17, 2009
Larry Roth
While I agree with you point of different priorities, it has been my experience that involving designers and developers allows them to see first hand the impact of their design choices.
You can still perhaps outsource the mediation, or the facilitator role, and relegate the designers/developers to observer/recorder roles. But having them involved–if properly prepped–can really improve their consideration of usability.
In our shop, we have tried following a more agile development approach and while it took some time, we now have developers that are actively seeking feedback and actually don’t mind when something doesn’t work, because then they have the challenge of “fixing it”.
But your point is well taken, perhaps it is best to include someone with less of a vested interest in the project at hand and more of a focus on usability.
February 17, 2009
Josh Walsh
@Larry – Thanks for clarifying one of my points which I didn’t communicate well. The designers and developers certainly need to be made aware of the problems, but shouldn’t be in charge of reviewing those items. They can’t fix a problem they don’t understand, and they are less likely to repeat it down the road.
February 17, 2009
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February 18, 2009