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before you launch an app you've got to
make sure that people can actually use
it then it's not mystifying just because
having a bizarre swipe interface work
for snapchat doesn't mean it'll work for
you
admittedly the app I'm working on is a
little simple because it's just for the
show it's it's one button right now and
might not be the best demonstration I'm
not too worried about its usability
but this isn't the case for most apps
all of your users have to be able to use
it even the drunk ones this is why user
testing comes in user testing helps you
understand how people use your product
and how to be received to folks who use
it for the same purpose you had in mind
when you designed it do they understand
how to use it is it as intuitive and
easy as you think it is particularly for
someone who's never seen it before and
can absolutely anyone use your app even
if they're tired and emotional there is
a reason I'm in this bar in March 2015
front-end developer and whisky
aficionado
Richard Litella created his website the
user is drunk your website should be so
simple a drunk person could use it which
is true you should ideally make your app
so intuitive that it can be used by
anyone anywhere in almost any conscious
condition but there is more to it than
just getting your friends around and
giving them some alcohol in this episode
let's figure out how to use a test how
to work out the questions and scenarios
you should create to see if your app is
actually usable and then how to figure
out if and how you should correct your
course how to figure out what your test
is actually want so you can give your
app the best chance of success at launch
let's get testing
have been a lot more interesting what
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you really want is an unbiased opinion
where people who don't know you might
then have more honest opinions about
what your what you're about what you've
built and just to go out to people you
don't know oftentimes like gorilla
research that's it you want to get to us
with a deeper understanding of how helps
them so you can use a when you're doing
more in-depth research you can use a
ladder in technique where you keep
asking why and get deeper down to the
like further down into the into the
question way you will start identify a
need or a problem that your own soul if
your design used s in session Gretchen
people in property model in the sense
that people make their what wonder
pitfalls you should write a script so
it's not have to be highly detailed
script but you should know it depends on
how much time you have but you should
know the things that you want to find
out so should write down what's a piece
of paper what are the five most
important things you need to know what
are your assumptions a dude and they
could be really high level up I've
mentioned before or they could be really
particular this is something I found out
during prototyping that something I
thought was was vitally important
actually most people didn't care about
and several people asked the same change
or the same feature which is something I
even thought about the seventh I don't
guessing the more news testing you do
the more you you find those patents it's
definitely about fighting patterns
because you're always going to have
people with their own particular take on
something and you need to collect enough
interviews enough data points to see
that it's either a pattern or it's just
one particular person's depending on
something and so we usually do I think
five to six interviews before we start
seeing a pattern emerge
it's not about proving your idea correct
you're not trying to we call usability
testing but it's not a test you're not
trying to pass
test you are trying to actually learn
more about what you've made
I'm used to conducting into these like
that's where I was only doing the items
in my head now I know why this wants to
go I know I have to push someone to all
the efforts no I need them to be
entirely themselves with their opinion
you find if you let people talk and
usually silences yes more important and
that's what you want you want their
honest input about the thing thank you
so much for coming today
um we're testing a new really simple
developing this is just a basic no the
right or wrong answers it turns out you
can't use it or that is my problem not
yours it'll really help you hear as much
information as possible
first of all just kind of questions what
phone do you use I use an iPhone 8 I
have a 1 plus by T your Android yeah I
think and what are things you use your
phone for social media browsing the web
email mainly navigation testing one can
you knock me up cool things you might
not know ok that's a tick can you find
out an interesting fact using it yes
well it's given me a fact and how
interesting is for me but so it's gonna
affect okay can we find out more than
one so the bottom the screaming its
Esther I put for something more
interesting so try that yeah so spy
question before we into what sunscreen
and wasn't it content that how do you
find it to use I thought that text at
the bottom which it swiped for something
more interesting was a bit small very
simple in terms of the immediate kind of
call to action it's asking you pretty
simple apart from I mean obviously I
made this slight misunderstanding by
miss reading the sort of swipe yeah yeah
how interesting water facts are not
super interesting because it's just
you're near this place see oh no that
place is quite interesting because I'm
quite new to writing as well so I don't
know much about it so I think do you get
quite a few facts because I only swipe
once so I got quite a basic back to
begin with would you use or download
that maybe potentially because it helps
you explore things that you may not know
possibly possibly depending on where I
was in the type of facts it has good
first impressions then haven't connected
the dots yet but need to work on
something for people who already know
their area the folks who said they'd
like it and might get something like the
final version of it they were all the
people who were local or just moved to
the area so it's great but you don't
generally download that but just for
holidays you need something that works
all the time so that's that's one point
the facts need to be more interesting we
need we need to put up something that is
more than just the closest Wikipedia
article and maybe it will be the closest
but we need to to somehow pull something
out of that and put it as an important
bit on the screen but it's not a
complete disaster I thought this was
going to be a complete disaster it's not
a complete disaster
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the facts that we've got aren't great
because I'm guessing we're just pulling
in the closest Wikipedia article yeah
they're doing a nearby search filling in
the nearby ones and we're just getting I
think the first image from the page and
a little extra summary of the
information displayed on the page so I
know this is an MVP Minimum Viable
Product we just in the basics but is
there any way that we can holger
rhythmically extract interesting after
that this intake of breath which is it's
like the time someone asks me for like
can you just do this there's okay well
interesting also is quite subjective so
because I know there's there's been like
research into machine learning
summarization there are probably tools
that we could use to do some sort of
analysis on the text that's there on the
whole page and pick out the most most
interesting facts but probably not for
our MVP I'd have to train the model I
wouldn't have to train the model I'd
have to hire some people to go through a
load of extracts from Wikipedia and Mark
whatever's interesting and hope that the
machine learning model worked and some
and you have to bake it into the app
somehow yeah we'd have to work it out
it's not gonna happen for an MVP is it I
don't think so
so what have we learned well quite a lot
I've got five cards this time
first of all user testing is essential
even if you don't have a lot of time or
budget you should still do it and it
might be testing in the street or remote
testing with the users in their own
homes but either way it will show you
the parts of your app idea that people
don't understand or that they find hard
to use and it'll make your app so much
more effective when you launch second
write a script for your user testing
session but be prepared to go off script
to a script will help you consistently
go through all the elements of the app
that you want to test with the user and
it'll help you explain what you need
them to do at each stage it will help
you be more consistent so the results
will be comparable but each user will
give you new insights into your app so
feel free to improvise if you need to
third look for patterns any results sit
down with your team cross-reference
everything and look for those patterns
of behavior are there specific parts of
the app that people just didn't
understand or that they find difficult
to use
well then similar Oh moments when users
really understood and appreciated your
app fourth look at what people do as
well as what they say a lot of users
struggle to tell you exactly what they
think they might want to be polite or
they might just not have the technical
language to explain their problem if
you're in the middle of a user testing
session where the user isn't doing the
best job of articulating their thoughts
or feelings and focus on their nonverbal
behaviors like posture and hand gestures
and facial expressions
finally user testing is all about
listening it's not marketing you are
very definitely not trying to sell your
app idea to the user you're a moderator
don't interrupt their flow by offering
them guidance or advice you wouldn't be
there to do this in the real world
so resist the urge to offer advice from
the sidelines if you take the time to
really listen you'll often get
surprising insights that you would have
missed and those little surprises can
tell you a lot
next time how to make money with your
app
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