Testing & Iteration
How could your solution (prototype) be a little bit better?
As a designer, you will need to test the solutions and features being implemented within the prototype. User testing is a way of confronting the reality of unpredictable end user behaviors. These realities can lead to significant and fundamental changes to your thinking about the solution/prototype.
Even the most carefully-considered ideas can be rendered inadequate during user testing. Testing solutions at a small scale helps us learn directly from end user behaviors, which are unbiased when compared to the perspectives and thoughts of the ‘design team’ or ‘designer.’ By mimicking what the final product will be like to use, prototype tests are one of the best ways to gather evidence (instead of opinions).
The typical steps of iteratively testing and improving include:
Build a lo-fi prototype
Present the design to several end users
Record any problems or difficulties end users have with the prototype
Refine prototype to account for/fix the problems
Repeat steps 2-4 until end user experiences are improved and difficulties are resolved
As end users experience difficulties with the prototype being tested, this will create new insights to help redefine problems and refine the prototyped solution. Recording the feedback you hear from the people you’re designing for is one of the essential elements of human-centered design. Integrating their feedback into your work and then coming up with another prototype is the best way to refine your idea until it’s something that’s bound to be adopted and embraced.
When undertaken correctly, the testing stage of the project can often feed into most stages of the Design Thinking process: it allows you to empathize and gain a better understanding of your users; it may lead to insights that change the way you define your ‘end user problem’; it may generate new ideas through ideation; or it might lead to an iteration of your prototype.
Videos & Helpful Resources
Use these readings, videos, and other resources to learn more about prototype testing and iteration.
Use paper prototypes to test ideas and get feedback quickly
Rapid iteration in idea development
Prototype testing is best done with a small number of participants
Set appropriate testing tasks
A/B Testing in Product Design
Observe, Test, Iterate, and Learn
Strategies & Tips for Success
Make your testing efforts more effective by keeping these strategies and tips in mind:
Setting up the Test:
Try to recreate the scenario and environment in which your users are most likely to be using the product.
If testing in a natural setting proves difficult, try to get users to perform a task, or play a role, when testing the prototype.
Make sure your users know what the prototype and test are about, but do not over-explain how the prototype works.
Remember that you are testing the prototype, not the user.
Conducting the Test:
While collecting feedback, make sure you are not disrupting the user’s interaction with the prototype.
Find a way to collect feedback in a way that freely allows you to observe what is happening (for example, by having a partner in the test, or by recording an audio or video of the test)
Let end users compare alternatives by creating multiple prototypes, each with a change in a single feature
Users often find it easier to share what they like and dislike about prototypes when they can compare, rather than if there was only one prototype to interact with.
Avoid over-explaining how your prototype works, or how it is supposed to solve your user’s problems.
Let the users’ experience in using the prototype speak for itself, and observe their reactions.
After the Test:
Ask users to talk through their experience by asking them to tell you what they were thinking as they engaged with the prototype.
When appropriate, prompt end users by asking them questions like “What are you thinking right now as you are doing this?”
Resist the urge to correct end users when they misinterpret how it’s supposed to be used.
User mistakes are valuable learning opportunities for you, the designer, to recognize opportunities for improvement.
Always follow up with questions, even if you think you know what the user means. Ask questions such as, “What do you mean when you say ___?”, “How did that make you feel?”, “Why?”
Practical Activities & Learning
1) Review your notes from “Immersion & Observation,” “Semi-Structured Interviews,” “Generating Ideas and Solutions,” and “Creating Prototypes for Testing.”
2) Present the three lo-fi prototypes to a small set of end users you’ve been engaging with.
3) Take notes on your observations of end user experiences with/feedback on your prototypes.
4) Choose one of the prototypes to move forward with and refine it using the end user feedback and observations you made.
5) Repeat steps 2-4 until end user experiences are improved and difficulties are resolved
In the Field
As a neighborhood consultant, you can submit up to 10 prototype testing and iteration worksheets for prototypes you test/improve with end users. Notes and other outputs should be shared and summarized to enhance our learning.
Prototype Testing Field Journal Worksheets available on request from aaron[at]akroadvice.com