Usability Testing Workshop

Learn Usability Testing on the Job Using the Case Study Method

Know what your users actually think—not what someone thinks they think! User testing is a critical element of the user-centered design process.

Everyone has an opinion but, when it comes to your website's functionality, nobody's opinion is more important, or more valuable, than that of your users.

During this workshop, you'll learn how to plan and conduct user testing on websites and applications. Using the same test plans, moderator's guides, and reporting tools used in Normal Modes' client engagements, this case study-based workshop emphasizes practice over theory, with practical essentials that can immediately be put to use as you create your first usability study.

Who Should Attend

This workshop is specifically targeted at teams who aren't usability experts, but who want to be able to cost effectively conduct usability studies on their own, including user interface designers, visual designers, website and application backend developers, project managers, product managers and related stakeholders. That's to say anyone involved with the strategy, research, design, or development of websites and applications can benefit from learning how to conduct usability testing.

What You'll Learn

Normal Modes' Usability Testing Workshop is a fast-paced, hands-on boot camp. We'll focus on these practical essentials:

  • Benefits of usability testing in the user-centered design lifecycle
  • Identifying the right testing methodology — from paper prototypes to remote usability testing
  • Planning your usability test
  • Recruiting real users as participants — sorting out the bad from the good, and providing proper incentives
  • Identifying the materials you'll need to conduct the test
  • Best practices for conducting testing
  • Analyzing results to produce meaningful reports
  • Effective strategies for handling political situations

Taught by expert usability consultants, this workshop includes lively discussions, real-life exercises and complete test materials — everything you need to conduct user testing on your own.

We Come to You

The Usability Testing Workshop is offered onsite only. By bringing this workshop into your organization, we can use your website or application as a case study to talk about the specific usability issues that matter to your organization.

By the end of the workshop, your team will have prepared all the materials necessary to begin a testing and reporting immediately.

Workshop Timeline

A two-day workshop; 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. each day with a 1-hour lunch break each day.

Workshops are scheduled at a mutually agreed upon time.

Fees

$12,500 per team, including travel expenses and a 1-hour planning session.

Maximum of 12 participants. Additional participants extra.

Materials

Workshop materials include student manual, all test planning documents, and a trial version of Morae, the industry standard usability testing software.

Normal Modes provides all workshop materials, except student laptops.

Agenda

The case study method for this workshop is designed to work with an existing website or application as our in-class model, allowing your team to plan and practice a test that can be immediately implemented.

Kickoff Meeting

Ten days prior to workshop, we'll have a planning meeting to go over the workshop case study.

Day 1

Part I: Overview of User Testing

  • Why conduct testing?
  • Selecting the right testing method for your problem
  • Qualitative vs. quantitative evaluations
  • Calculating ROI and demonstrating value (Exercise)
  • Ethical considerations

Part II: Planning Your Test

  • Creating a test plan (Exercise)
  • Recruiting participants
  • Developing a screener (Exercise)
  • Incentives
  • Writing the moderator's guide and task scenarios (Exercise)

Day 2

Part III: Conducting the Test

  • Set up you'll need to conduct most user testing
  • Who should attend?
  • Moderating the session
  • "Think aloud" protocol (Exercise)

Part IV: Communicating Findings

  • Analyzing the data (Exercise)
  • Reporting methods
  • Assessing priority and severity (Exercise)
  • Managing political situations

Follow Up Meeting

Two weeks after our workshop, the we'll have a follow up session to review testing outcomes and discuss any questions that may have come up.