My first user testing

As I write this, I have been working at Yavi for the past two months with an awesome team building a messaging app for shift-workers. In the short time I have been at Yavi, I have had a chance to go deeper in design research than I ever have in the past.

I've spoken to over 20 users in interviews and testing sessions alongside Yavi's Product Owner, Tadas, and other members of the team. The bulk of the testing we carried out was UX testing of prototypes – finding what people struggle with in our app. We created a list of tasks and asked the interviewees to show us how they would perform the actions. I learnt some interesting things, but I mainly saw common design thinking in action.

A couple of examples I saw: A user might misunderstand an icon. They might forget how they performed a complex action once the tutorial for it has gone. They might be confused by some text which looks like an input, or a button that doesn't look active. They might struggle to find specific information deep in the app. They might not grasp unfamiliar concepts like bots or photo conversion.

Everything a user does is right and understandable.

As we come close to releasing version one of Yavi after several months of internal design and development, I have to thank user testing for bringing the realities of our users to me. I see it as an important way to stay grounded and feel close to your target market's needs. It may not provide any significant revelations but it nudges you back on track if you start to stray.

For a good user testing process, I recommend you have a look at Google Ventures' Research Sprint.

Have a lovely day.
© 2023, Graham Macphee.