I’ve been doing usability tests for 35 years now. And I still am never attempted to just “wing it.”
For me, even the simplest test needs at least some kind of test plan & some kind of script. In fact, I’m a firm believer that:
- A good planning meeting means a good test plan
- A good test plan means good prep
- Good prep means easy facilitation
- Easy facilitation means good test sessions
- Good test sessions mean good data
- Good data means good analysis
- Good analysis means good reporting
- Good reporting means your team’s actually motivated to changes that will affect the user experience in a positive way
Now, I’m not saying that every test needs to be a formal effort. If you’re at least cognizant of the above steps & maybe write some of them down on paper, you should be fine. The bigger the effort, though, the more formal you’ll probably want to make it.
Whatever the size of your project, probably the biggest benefit you’ll get out of good planning is something that you may not have considered, confidence. It might just be me, but I don’t work very well when I’m flustered. I forget things, I get things out of order, I say the wrong thing, I hem and haw, I don’t exactly inspire confidence in my user (or my observers) …
Now, I do know some other folks who honestly do thrive under pressure. In fact, those kind of people often need a little jolt of some kind like to really get things rolling. You know the types – that guy in college who was always pulling all-nighters, the exec who can make off-the-cuff remarks in front of 200 people, that usability engineer who’s never run a pilot test in their life.
To each his own, but usability tests typically have way too many moving parts to ever really “wing it.”
Yogi and some cutting-edge tech (for the 1950s, that is)
