What’s the most important step in Usability Testing?

 Deciding to do it.  Contact TWS to get the ball rolling.

 In preparation for a usability test or focus group, we at TWS listen to you in order to understand your product and challenges from the start.  We create a proposal based on your requirements.  We submit the proposal to you, which includes project description, our deliverables, schedule, and budget.  We typically prepare a proposal within 48 hours of receiving a request.

If you opt to use our services, we can help you define the target market and write the recruiting screener.  We can help analyze and identify the relevant tasks.  We can even prototype the user interface, if desired.  We can write the script for the test, conduct the test sessions by observing and videotaping the participants, provide questionnaires to the users, and include measures of success.  In short, we can do it all!

During a usability test, one of our highly-trained professionals interacts with each user to help them verbalize what they are thinking as they use the product.  We do not employ junior personnel for usability testing because we believe that providing critical insights into usability problems requires the appropriate level of background AND experience. 

We also conduct interviews after each test session to collect additional feedback.  After watching a few users, trends can be identified that expose underlying interface design problems that contribute to user errors.  Based on these observations and our interface design knowledge, we can then make specific recommendations about how to fix the problems.

We can capture screen video in almost perfect fidelity, suitable for clearly seeing user errors and precisely measuring the time it takes participants to perform tasks.

 If you already have your own usability lab, TWS has considerable experienced in adapting to any testing environment.  If you don’t have your own usability lab, TWS has developed a portable usability lab that can be set up anywhere, such as adjoining conference rooms, at your site or at a neutral off-site location in any city in the world.

Once testing is completed, we analyze and interpret the results, prepare a top-level summary, report, and/or presentation.  TWS deliverables provide specific and prioritized design recommendations, so that your team can make changes to the product or documentation before the release date. 

 We pride ourselves on meeting schedules and fast turn-around of deliverables, and we follow-up with you in order to make sure you understand the findings and implications, and answer any questions you have about the work.  We are professionals who respond to emails and voicemails, and provide deliverables when promised.

Email: drw@twsinc.com