Usability Evaluation and Testing in UI UX | Usability Testing Tutorial for Beginners | Simplilearn

Key Takeaways

[music] Have you ever visited a website that felt like a chaotic mess? You know the kind where ads are popping up everywhere and you can't tell the difference between the news and the commercials and you can't even find the menu button. Frustrating, right? Well, that's exactly what we are here to fix today. Hey everyone, welcome to this video on usability valuation and testing course by Simple. In today's market, user experience is everything. If users can't navigate your app easily, they just delete it. That is why this topic is in such high demand. Companies aren't just looking for designers who can make things look pretty. They need experts who can prove that a design actually works. Learning how to evaluate and test usability is the secret source that turns a good idea into a successful product. In this video, we are going to break down exactly how to do that based on real world classroom examples. First, we'll discuss huristic evaluation. We are going to look at the rules of thumb for good design, specifically Neielson's 10 heristics. We will even do a critic of the Yahoo homepage to show you exactly how to spot major usability problems like bad navigation and visual clutter. Second, we will cover user surveys. You will learn how to ask the right questions to get data you can actually use. We'll also look at examples of feedback forms of apps like Instagram and fashion shopping apps covering everything from satisfaction scales to open-ended questions about the features. And finally, we will talk about the tools. We will discuss how to use platforms like maze for unmodderated testing and why we test using Figma prototype to catch issues before the app is even built. So, if you're ready to stop guessing and start testing, let's dive in. Now, before we move on, here's a quick heads up. 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This course also features a bonus AI tool that will help you create stunning designs faster, saving hours of work. So, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and enroll now. You can find the course link below. Now, before we get started, here's a quick quiz question to test your understanding. The question is, when we talk about usability, what is our main goal? Your options are to make the app look like a piece of art, to make the app easy and smooth for people to use, to make the app as expensive as possible, or to write the longest computer code possible. Let me know your answers in the comment section below. >> So we have usability evaluation and testing. Understanding the basics of usability evaluation. Today's engage and think focuses on companies like Airbnb and Spotify um credit their rapid growth and usability. These platforms are known for providing seamless user experiences that keep people coming back. Have you ever recommended an app or website to someone because of its excellent usability? What made it stand out? It's like a um I don't know if you guys are familiar with like early or there used to be things that you could like download to your phone and you could have like your social media in one kind of like interface and toggle between your apps in one kind of screen versus like I got to leave I have to leave Twitter or X to go to like completely leave X to go to Instagram. But the the way the phones um that most phones operate now, it's not a a difficult process of doing that versus when you're on your laptop and you have your Slack channel and you have your email and then you have your Spotify because you want to listen to music and then say you want to check your Facebook really quick, but you also what was the last one I used to put in there? You also want to uh check your notion board. Um single box is kind of like you can log in and add your credentials from all of your platforms that you have like accounts with pretty much um that you use primarily and not maybe not every single platform I would put into Singlebox, but all of my emails I would put in there. all of my socials. I didn't know it's like highly confidential, but I had to like purchase this. I had to purchase an access key. So, once you purchase an access key, essentially that um is giving you like your own version of this product in a way. It's like a it's a it's a um it's not a I don't believe it's considered a web app. I think it's considered like a desktop app. But it basically just allows you to navigate through a lot of say if you have like a if you have a job or you have like a couple of jobs, you can kind of just stay organized a bit more in one centralized place on one kind of screen and toggle between the tabs versus you have a million um tabs open and different windows and you're trying to find it all. And and the reason why I brought that up is cuz the the prompt was about um keeping people coming back to their platform. And I'm like I know a platform I just I don't really ever want to like I don't ever really It's not that I never interact with like Google Chrome or Safari, but for the most part this is like always in my kind of like sidecar if you will um as single box. So at least on my like personal devices. So for today's learning objectives are that by the end of this lesson you will be able to apply the principles of usability to assess the user experience of a product or service. You'll also be able to conduct a usability evaluation to analyze potential usability issues in a product or ser or website. You also be able to utilize Neielson's 10 usability heristic heristics to evaluate the effectiveness of the products interface design. An overview of usability. Usability refers to how effective, efficiently, and satisfactorially. Satisfactory, a specific user in a particular context can use a product or design to achieve a defined goal. It focuses on how intuitive and userfriendly a design is. Understanding usability in UX is assessing usability can be challenging, but the Nielson Nielson Norman group identifies five essential components that make it easier to evaluate product usability. starts with learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. This method is commonly known as the L E M's framework, Lemur's framework. Usability as a subset of UX is understanding the key differences and their impact on design. So, usability is how easy and efficient a product is to use. um how much friction it has. That's something that you may want to um think about more um in depth at this time if if your um project or your process is um potentially has hurdles for users or maybe um h having some difficulty or ease to like sift through. We call that friction. Um, sometimes you want friction in the flow and then sometimes you don't want too much friction in your flow. For example, when I worked at Wish, uh, we had to amplify the, uh, we had to increase the amount of friction in our sign up process versus just letting people kind of come in and do what they want. Um, and that was for the needs of the business and um, federal regulations as well. So just some food for thought there. Um to continue [clears throat] uh usability is how easy and efficient a product is to use. It focuses on partic on particular elements like task completion, navigation and efficiency. It also the example that we have is in a food delivery app like Uber Eats. Usability refers to how easy it is for users to search for a restaurant, place an order, and check out. And then for uh user experience UX, it covers um how the product looks and feels and the emotional response it evokes. UX is about UX is about the entire interaction with the product from first impressions to long-term satisfaction. An example there is the overall experience includes ease of use, how good the app looks and then delivering delivery tracking and the enjoyment of ordering food. And then next you have factors of usability. Usability encompasses three core factors. First we have guidance, satisfaction, and then next we last but not least we have efficiency. So to go over guidance, it refers to how well a product helps users navigate and complete a task by providing clear directions or support. For example, Uber provides excellent guidance on its map interface with an automatic location detection enabling users to set up set pickup and drop off points accurately for a seamless booking experience. Efficiency um is the context of usability focuses on how quickly and with minimal efforts and actions a user can accomplish a task within a system or interface. It is about improving the user. It is about improving the user experience. [snorts] For example, you for example, Uber simplifies ride booking with a few taps using save locations, estimated arrival times, and payment options like Uber wallet and Apple Pay. And then satisfaction. Satisfaction measures how enjoyable and fulfilling a user experiences when interacting with a product. Uber enhances user satisfaction by overall by excuse me by offering realtime ride tracking, fair estimates, and a post ride rating system. This creates more enjoyable and trustworthy experience that boosts user retention and loyalty. I didn't create a a quick check window today. Um a quick check view today, but I'll just read it from the screen. Alex is using a new banking app to transfer funds. He finds the app visually appealing and easy to navigate, but the transaction process is slow, taking multiple steps to complete. Which usability factor needs improvement in this scenario? Introduction to usability evaluation methods. What is usability evaluation? Usability evaluation assesses how easy and enjoyable it is for users to accomplish their goals when interacting with a product. First you have requirements. Then you have um surveys and going into your analysis and design and then you have early design testing um which is another point of evaluation and then you have implementation and then usability evaluations. um excuse [clears throat] me and then testing followed by analytics and A and B multi- variative testing and then deployment. It ensures that a product meets user needs and delivers a smooth frustrationfree experience. An example um of usability evaluation is a good example is Venmo. Um, how many people use VMO? Every once in a while. Oh, I have to send my friend something for some pizza. Cool. A couple people use it. So, VMO, which tests how users send money, split bills, and view payment history. Um, this helps make it easy to use and secure and secure and ensure smooth transactions. Why is usability evaluation important? Usability evaluation improves UX design by making product product intuitive and user centric. It starts with user centered design followed by problem identification and iterative improvement followed by cost reduction and last but not least competitive advantage. Some types of usability evaluation uh methods are classified as qualitative offering insights into user behavior and quantitative measuring usability with metrics like success rate and time on task. The three main types of usability evaluation are usability inspection, usability testing and usability inquiry. Here are some common techniques used in different usability evaluation types. Uh first we have heruristic evaluation. Uh I thought I was going to go through each one separately. Sorry. First we have heristic evaluation, cognitive walkthrough. Um expert and expert reviews. And then for usability testing, uh we actually went through a lot of this. Uh we went over user testing uh AB testing and remote usability testing eyetracking studies and then think out loud think aloud protocol and then for usability inquiry uh we have surveys interviews and then focus groups which we also went over. So usability inspection types here are the different usability excuse me the differences between key usability inspection types. starting with heristic evaluation um and then followed by um cognitive walkthrough and expert reviews. U heristic evaluation is described as experts review a product against predefined usability principles to find usability issues and it's best to use this um early in the in your design process before um before user testing. The benefits are quick, cost effective, no real users required and it highlights major issues early. The limitations um are that it lacks direct user feedback and it [snorts] may miss real real world um issues. Then you have cognitive walkthrough. Um the description there is evaluators simulate user tasks to identify issues in task flow and ease of learning. It's best to use this during the design phase particularly for learnability. And then last excuse me and the next benefits include identifies task flow and sequence issues. And then last but not least, the limitations include time consuming and requires skilled endeavors, excuse me, skilled evaluations. Um, expert reviews. Um, the description explains it as usability experts provide quick insights based on industry standards and guidelines. It's best to use this early in design or when rapid evaluation is needed. And then the benefits include quick inexpensive valuable insights based on standards and then limitations are that it lacks real user feedback may reflect expert biases. So heristic evaluation heristic evaluation is a process in which experts apply usability guidelines or heristics to independently review user interfaces and identify issues. It is essential because it quickly identifies usability issues early in the design process allowing for cost effective improvements without needing real users. Some of the phases of huristic evaluation. These phases uh provide a clear structured approach to identifying identifying prioritizing and resolving usability issues effectively. And here's a breakdown of those key phases. At first, you have pre-evaluation training. Next, you have evaluation, followed by severity rating, in addition to exposure assessment, and last but not least, debriefing. Next, we're going to learn I'm going to we're going to go over what are Nielsson's 10 usability heristics. These are a set of general principles for a user interface design formatted by Jacob Nielson that are widely used for heristic evaluations and they are visibility of system status, match between system and the real world, user control and freedom, consistency and standards and then of error prevention. Next you have recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design, help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors and then help um help and documentation. [snorts] Next, we'll go over the visibility of system status. The system should always keep users informed about what is happening through timely and clear feedback. Good example of this is when uploading a or syncing files to Google Drive. Um it displays processing indicators and notifications keeping users informed about the status of their uploads and a match between system and the real world. The system should The system should use familiar language and concepts that offer, excuse me, concepts that users understand following real world conventions to make interactions intuitive. For example, Airbnb uses familiar terms like check-in and checkout when describing dates for booking, which match real world experiences of saying of staying in accommodations. User control and freedom. Users often make mistakes. So there so there should be easy ways to undo and redo actions like back and cancel buttons. An example there is Microsoft Word allows users to undo and redo their actions through clear buttons in the toolbar helping users easily correct mistakes. We have consistency and standards. The system should follow platforms conventions and maintain consistency and design and terminology across the interface. Facebook maintains a consistent interface design across its app and website making it easy for users to transition between devices without relearning interactions. Next, you have error management. The design should manage errors by offering users confirmation options or highlighting potential mistakes before they occur. An example there is when creating an account, if the chosen username is unavailable, the system suggests alternative options to simplify the process. Next, you have recognition rather than recall. The design should reduce the need for users to remember information by keeping visible options. Visible options, instructions, and actions readily accessible. For example, Amazon keeps past orders easily accessible, allowing users to reorder items without needing to re remember exact product names or search for them again. And I even noticed now um and this has been for some time now the subscription portion of things like you don't if you really take your vitamins or use something within maybe like 30 60 or like 90 days um spanning this a frequent product that you use you just subscribe and save even more money um just subscribing to continuously order that product. So and then flexibility and efficiency of use is described as the system should cater to both novice and expert users by providing shortcuts and accelerators that increase efficiency for frequent users. And feel free to like remember some of these like hotkeys if you will um on certain platforms. like I pretty much use them all the time just to make sure that I'm being a little bit quicker. But for example, uh Photoshop offers power user shortcuts such as the following um and they're called there's more um hotkeys as well. Aesthetics and minimalist design interfaces should avoid unnecessary information and focus on what is essential for the user to complete task minimizing clutter. An example is Gmail's app interface examples exemplifies minimalist design with a clean layout featuring a search bar, sender info, subject line, content preview, and timestamp for quick access. Um next we have help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors. Error messages should be clear, indicate the problem and suggest solutions in simple understand solutions in simple understandable language. For example, when users are offline, Spotify shows a clear message prompting them to check their connection and try again. help and documentation. When the best designs are intuitive, sometimes users need help. Uh we want to provide easily accessible, concise documentation or support that explains how to complete tasks. An example here is GitHub offers a comprehensive help center with clear documentation and guides on using features like using repositories, pull requests and workflows, ensuring users can easily find the assistance they need. [snorts] So I'm in the file, the heristic evaluation file. Um, basically we want to prioritize and evaluate the severity of usability issues and enabling teams to focus on their efforts more efficiently. Um, so basically we're going to rate things from zero to four. Zero meaning um you don't agree that this is a usability problem at all. one meaning it's a cosmetic problem only not um it may not need to be fixed unless it's extra just extra time or availability on the project and then two is minor usability uh problems fixing um this should be given low priority and then three major usability problem important to fix so um this should be given a high priority And then four is um use is a cat catastrophe. Um it's imperative to fix this before product can be released. So you want to make sure you're filling out the additional information of your evaluator, uh your date, your product, and your task. And then some of the things that we went over today like visibility of system status. um you observe those issues and rank the severity of that and your recommendations as as to potentially improve it. So can keep going through that. Let's also open up the Airbnb um platform. So, in another screen or another window. Um, and I can just open it here so we can like toggle back and forth for the recording. So, first we're going to um open the Oh, I didn't switch. Hold up. So I'm sharing the Airbnb tab and we're basically going to evaluate the visibility of system status um using horistic principle and add our observations and severity in the template. So um let's take for example, let me refresh the screen. the website's loading indicator um provides like clear visual feedback. Um yeah, the example that I'm I'm looking at um is basically suggesting that um the first one is observation. Um the website's loading indicator provides a clear visual feedback reassuring users that the system is actively processing the request. Um and I think that is somewhat true. Um, when you go back at least, you can like see at the bottom when you scroll to the bottom, it's showing that there's still more there. Um, I think that's what they mean by the loading indicator. So, you would place that in you place that in your first section here. Um, let me just copy that. [snorts] All right, let me actually I didn't realize I didn't make a copy of this. Um, yeah, it's probably going to take a while for us to get access to that. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to duplicate it to my drafts and see if it'll just pull up a editable version and then maybe I could share that with you guys. Yep, I can edit this. Cool. Here you go, guys. Probably a [snorts] better uh version of that. Yeah, I agree, Alexandra. That's why I'm like even the um reference guide that I'm I'm using now. Um it's a bit outdated from the current Airbnb interface. So, just kind of like I understand what they mean in a way. Um but yeah, good point. Excuse me. And then next you want to evaluate the match between system and real world real world heristic principles on the Airbnb website and add your observations and severity in the template. So when we toggle back over to the when we talk about go over to Airbnb. I'm trying to I just want to make sure my screen is still visible. So, just to recap cuz I I didn't realize my screen stopped sharing. Um we just filled in that first bucket visibility of system status with the website loading indicator language. And then next we're discussing the uh match between system and real world. So that looks more like um using familiar logos and icons such as payment gateways like AMX, Visa and social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram creates a sense of familiarity famili familiarity and trust. And just to go back into that at the bottom you can see the social media icons being linked there. Um when you go to actually pay um you're able to see me just get there. um you're able to see some sort of brand recognition even once you provide your your actual information and then um choosing your payment method. I I vaguely remember that they still have some I don't know if they indicate which card type anymore, but um I think if you have other payment methods, they'll indicate what they are and that also provides a layer of trust as well. And then next uh we have the way that they evaluate the user control and freedom heristic principle on the Airbnb website and um add observations and severity in the template. So, for example, if I were selecting my specific checkout dates or check-in dates, say, oh, I'm on check out. Say my check-in date is the 12 and my checkout date is the 22nd, and I'm searching for places to look. I can also get to this screen and engage with like my price estimate. Users have controls over their actions such as refining search filters. um exploring listings and managing bookings, this interface allows them to navigate between different sections easily. So, if um these are all things that are primary for you, like you need a washer, you need um somewhere to park and you need to be able to bring your pet, you want to make sure that you're actually including that in your potential stay. And I I think what would be cool is because a lot of this is outdated um from the notes that I have to include here. I think it would be cool to like use the evaluation to show the severity of how how much this needs to be improved as to what the priority of improvement should be. [clears throat] Next we have um consistency and standards. So when it comes to consistency and standards in relation to how things um appear on Airbnb, how things appear on Airbnb's website. Um we want to be u make sure that like the fonts are consistent um shapes colors um to create a cohesive and visually appearing appealing interface. So I think that is essentially accurate u regarding Airbnb like their fonts are the same. Everything looks pretty clean and clear. even their corners rad like roundedness is around the same. And then next we have error prevention. Error prevention um is a heristic principle on the Airbnb website um that it proactively prompts users to check their card details and notifies them when they are required there any required details are missing and are properly updated preventing potential errors and I couldn't um agree to that like if there's any information or if you if you're um there's issues isues with your booking. Airbnb does a pretty decent job of letting you know like, hey, this is um this is um like you may want to may want to be aware of this or bringing things to your attention. Next, you have the recognition rather than recall. uh for recognition and um rather than recall. Um we want to make sure that they well Airbnb does use a lot of like clear labels. Um going back to this check in checkout screen again um that serve as visual cues um basically helping users understand and navigate the interface without relying genuinely on their memory. So, I don't know how many I don't know exactly how I know I need to be somewhere from the 12th to the 22nd. And I don't know exactly how many days that is, but or [snorts] how many nights I would need, but it's 10 nights apparently when I see the indicator here. Um I I know that I'm looking for homes in a certain price range. I want to make sure that I'm getting things in a certain um price range and budget and definitely on the certain day. So, making sure that your labels are clear is really important to making sure that you're booking. Has anyone ever booked the wrong like travel arrangements or staying accommodations? I have it. It's terrible. Booking the wrong flight is or it wasn't a flight. I was actually catching a bus um to from one area that I was in and it basically I had to like I mean someone was nice to me and they just let me on cuz they saw the way I booked it. It was like flipped but it happens. Yeah. Just clicking that link. Thanks Alexandra for sharing that. And then next we have the flexibility and efficiency of use. And that looks more like um Airbnb offering various filters and search options allowing users to find suitable accommodations based on their preferences and efficiency. So that's like all the way over here. Um indicating what you need. union, a type of place, number of rooms, etc. Um, aesthetic and minimalist design is um categorized as the platform's clean and uncluttered. Uh, design experience um enhances visual appeal and reduces cognitive load. And then next we have um helping users recognize and recover errors. Um Airbnb's error messages are clear and provide guidance on how to correct mistakes during a booking process or account management. Um, for example, if you had if you needed to um include your profile photo or um update your card information. I've even had issues where um I mean while they didn't help me recover from it, they made me aware of the issue. Um, and I had an issue with uh my actual stay and for some reason my reservation kept getting cancelled through the system and saying that I did it. It's totally weird, but I continuously got those notifications. um they didn't necessarily provide clear guidance on that issue but um the the messages the error messages were clear and then help and documentation. So to evaluate the help and documentation uh for heristic principles on Airbnb's website, uh we first want to like just look at everything that they have um to offer essentially at a high level. And I can honestly say Airbnb does have a a decent I mean even though it didn't work out in that particular case I have utilize Airbnb's support team and they have been helpful in other at other times for me. Um the they offer tips FAQs um the support feature to assist users. um they have a hell help center um that allows you more insight. I'm just they're constantly sharing knowledge and insight as to how to best use their platform. Um so yeah, just by following these steps, you have successfully conducted a heroistic evaluation of the Airbnb interface uh using established usability principles. And then this process has helped to identify key usability issues and provided insights into improving the user experience. And feel free to um expand on this if you would like um indicating the severity of the issue and then potential recommendations or solutions rather for how to um solve for the issue. So just continuing on making sure that screen is shared. All right. And then how to conduct a heristic evaluation. Steps for conducting a heristic evaluation include defining the scope and setting objectives. Selecting the heristics. recruit and prepare the evaluators and then conduct independent evaluations. Um you also want to consolidize consolidate and analyze the findings and then report the findings um and make recommendations. Last but not least um implement design improvements. Heristic evaluation of Amazon's usability. Imagine you're a UX designer for Amazon's Imagine you're a UX designer for Amazon's mobile app. You notice users rarely use the voice search and scan features due to difficulty locating or ex or difficulty locating or activating them. To address this, you conduct a heristic evaluation to improve their v their visibility and usability. Next, we want to define which parts of the product will be evaluated and defined define the usability goals. Uh the first action is to identify key user tasks and scenarios. Specify rather the entire product or specific features will be evaluated. uh followed up by clarifying objectives such as addressing navigation or form usability and then scope. Um the scope for that is uh focusing your evaluation specifically on the voice search and scan features and then your objective would be um identify and resolve usability issues related to feature discovery feature discoverability and user accessibility. and then selecting the heristics. Choose a set of usabil usability principles to guide the evaluation. Uh you have Neielson's 10 usability heristics are commonly used. Um the action would be select the select or customize a heristic framework based on the product. An example there would be um visibility of system status, consistency, error prevention and flexibility. And then the potential uh solution uh would be to improve visibility and ease of use for the voice search and scan features. Uh choose visibility of system status and recognition rather than recall as your guiding heristic. And then your approach would be to align heristics with user issues that uh focus on key design aspects and provide targeted feedback. Next, you want to recruit and prepare the evaluator evaluators. I select three to five usability experts to perform the evaluation. A diverse group ensures broader issue identification. And next you have action which allows you to choose evaluators with relevant experience, excuse me, relevant expertise or experience. Um, brief them on the product users, the product users and evaluation context and then [snorts] provide access to necessary materials like prototypes or wireframes. In this real world real world scenario, you'd recruit usability experts for the valuation. And then for now, imagine your team has experienced evaluators with mobile app and e-commerce design expertise. Your approach there would be to provide background on Amazon's target users and feature goals to guide evaluators focus during the evaluation. Um evaluators independently review the product focusing on task and applying heristics to find usability issues. Your action here would be to walk through the interface noting issues tied to specific heruristics. Document those issues um based on severity and location and then rate the severity of each issue. For example, minor, moderate or major. And the way this looks in real real life uh is provide evaluators with at least with the latest Amazon app version and set up realistic tasks like finding a product via voice search or viewing similar items with the scan feature. Your approach is use real world tasks to allow evaluators to experience the app from a user's perspective making usability issues easier to identify. Um, you want to also gather and analyze all findings to identify patterns and prioritize issues. As far as consolidating and analyzing the findings, your actions include combining all eva, excuse me, combining all evaluators findings into a master list, group similar issues, and remove duplicates, and then prioritize issues based on consensus and severity. The way this looks lived out is that each evaluator independently reviews the voice and scan features, noting issues like icon visibility, activation feedback, and clarity on feature status. Your approach is to document each issue with the violated heristic and severity rating to aid in prioritizing fixes during analysis. And then you want to report the findings and make recommendations. Prepare a detailed report that includes the issues, their severity, and suggested solutions. Your initial action there would be to organize the report um with an executive summary uh methodology and findings. Use screenshots or annotations to illustrate usability problems. Prioritize solutions based on impact on user experience. And then in the more context on that is after evaluations compile a master list of issues grouping similar problems like visibility and feedback and prioritize critical usability issues affecting user experience. Your approach there would be to organize findings by severity um to highlight patterns and focus on high impact areas needing immediate attention. So similar to that ranking of like one through four um four being like this is a this needs to be changed like immediately. Um and of course one being we can change it if we have time. It's not that big of a deal. It's more subjective. and then implement design improvements [snorts] um implement the design changes and re-evaluate the product to conform usability improvements. Uh the actions there are to share the report with design and development teams while addressing uh critical issues first. We also want to consider a follow-up evaluation or user testing to validate these improvements. Make sure they're worth the actual overall budget of time and cost. And then based on your findings, create a report that's a report with, excuse me, based on your on your findings, create a report with specific recommendations for the design team, such as making voice and scan options more prominent. Adding visual feedback, for example, glowing borders to show active status, um that hover state to show like something's changed. You can also do that. and then including a tool tip for firsttime users explaining these features. And then um just to recap, a tool tip is just a quick little information um tab or hover over that just reveals um additional uh content information to help the guide the user through the experience. Uh the approach is that they offer clear structured u recommendations to guide the design team in enhancing user experience making voice search and scan features more intuitive and accessible. um to implement design improvements. After conducting the heristic evaluation and implementing the design improvements, the scan and voice search option icons are placed in the search bar. Some benefits versus drawbacks. Uh let's take a closer look at the key benefits and drawbacks to understand when and how it should be used effectively. Some benefits include cost effective, it's time efficient, it's flexible, it's early identification of usability issues, it provides expert insights, it's minimal resource requirement, it's exhaustive and compatible and can be repeated regularly. Uh some drawbacks are that it lacks real user feedback. uh subjective jud subjective judgments uh limited scope, scarcity of usability experts, potential false narratives, and then overlooking contextual factors. And then we have another quick check. Uh this quick check, uh Jordan is designing a navigation system for a mobile banking app. He wants to ensure that users can easily see the current status of their transactions as they navigate through the app. Uh is it a flexibility and efficiency of use, b uh visibility of system status, c aesthetic and minimalist design, or d consistency and standards. All right, I see most of you answered and I I feel like you guys have been spot on today. Good job. Um, yes, the answer is B. Um, just some context behind that is visibility of system status is one of Nielsson's 10 usability heristics. It means that the system should always keep users informed about what's going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time. [snorts] In this case, Jordan wants users to easily see the current status of their transactions which directly relates to ensuring visibility of system status. All right. So we have usability evaluation types usability testing. What is usability testing? It is a method used to evaluate how easy and userfriendly a product, service or system is by testing it with real users. It focuses on observing users as they interact with the product, identifying usability problems, gathering both quant qualitative and quantitative data, and understanding user behavior. and preferences. Why do we need usability testing? It is essential for creating us userfriendly products. Um, and here are some key benefits that it offers. It enhance enhances user experience and increases user satisfaction and reduces development costs and then supports business goals. So, just to go over the usability testing types, um, user testing, AMB testing, remote usability testing, eye tracking studies, um, basically seeing where your eyes are scanning, and then think aloud protocol or your eyes or your mouse. And then usability uh testing user testing a method where rail users perform predefined task while being observed either in person or remotely um to identify usability issues and user preferences based on their behavior. When to use a various at various stages of development from wireframes to final products. Uh benefits it provides direct feedback from users and helps uncover usability issues and user preferences. Limitations include it can be time consuming and costly especially when when conducted a person in person or a large scale or on a large scale. Some examples there include Shopify's conducted usability testing to refine the information architecture of expert profiles, ensuring that merchants could easily find relevant information and feel confident in hiring decisions. A comparison method that tests two or more value versions of a product or feature to determine which one performs better based on predefined metrics like conversions rates conversion rates and click-through rates. And when to use this is during the development phase or after launch to optimize specific design elements. Benefits include it provides objectives uh driven a datadriven insights into user preferences and design performance. Limitations include it requires a large sample size for strategic excuse me for statistically val statistical validity and is only suitable for testing specific elements. An example there is Ben, a budget telecom provider based in the Netherlands, conducted A and B testing on its product page by changing the placement or of the phone color palette, making the color options more visible to users related in a 17.63% increases in the conversation. And then remote usability testing um similar to traditional user testing but condi conducted remotely allows users to complete task in their own environments while researchers observe and gather unmodderated data. When to use this is best um when testing a with a geographical diverse audience and when in-person testing is not feasible. Some benefits include that it is cost-effective, scalable, and allow for a larger more diverse participate participant to participant pool. Limitations include it lacks control over participants environments um and may encounter potential technical issues. For example, Slack conducted remote usability testing to gather feedback from international users, helping them understand how the app performed across different devices and network network conditions. Usability testing, eyetracking studies, uh, a method using eyetracking technology to analyze where users focus their attention on a screen, identifying what captures users attention and areas that may be overlooked. [snorts] Hi. Um, that may be overlooked. When to use this is best applied when evaluating visual design, content hierarchy, and identifying areas of confusion. Some benefits here include some benefits here include um it provides rich qualitative data on user interactions and thought patterns. It also it also includes limitations um that allow part that restrict participants um from finding it may find it unnatural or distracting to speak while performing tasks which could affect their their task performance. And I've done that too before where I'm doing a test and I have to like essentially say my thought speak my thoughts out loud or speak my actions out loud and it can be a little distracting to let's say say you forget to say a step or you're trying to speak through each and every point um could be a little bit uh distracting from your overall experience. And an example of that is LinkedIn conducted LinkedIn conducted a think aloud protocol study to observe users navigating their platform and identify areas of confusion particularly with with features like restriction excuse me reaction icons and feed sorting options. some types of usability testing. Um, and while there are several other types of usability testing, each suited to different stages of the product development cycle, each are suited to different stages of the product development cycle and specific research goals. And here are some. You have task based or scenario-based testing. Then you have concept testing, accessibility testing and then survivability testing. Uh these are and then usability testing formats. These are common formats of usability testing each suited to different stages of the product development cycle and specific research goals. So, first we have moderated testing, which is someone hosting [snorts] it. Um, unmodderated testing, which is probably just more self-paced. No one's hosting it or at least guiding you through in-person testing. And then you have um which is self-explanatory. And then you have remote testing. The usability testing process is efficient preparation for efficient preparation for usability testing is essential to ensure the process runs smoothly and provides valuable insights. Here are some key steps to provide excuse me to prepare effectively. You want to first define objectives followed by developing a test plan. Preparing testing materials. Uh recruiting participants and then setting up test setting up the testing environment, creating a moderator's guide and then conducting a pilot test and then ensuring ethical considerations. And just to elaborate a bit more on a few things like defining your objectives. Um yes you want to seek feedback but what are your actual objectives um from that to do with that feedback? Um what are you hoping that the um your objective for the user even completing this task? Um what do you hope that they will accomplish? um we're defining that during the objectives segment. And then I just wanted to further um reiterate during the preparing test materials um that isn't always just showing your prototype. Sometimes it's a walkthrough, an introduction, um a a survey afterwards. Um so prepare all your testing materials and then um just as well as you want to develop a test plan. um and your test materials. You also want to create a moderator guide so that the moderator isn't um being suggestive in what they're communicating and they're making sure that they are um leading the conversation um clearly and effectively as well. So to continue usability evaluation and testing, we're going to focus on exploring usability testing tools today. So quick recap of yesterday. Uh we went over usability ensure we went over and learned that usability ensures that a product is easy to use, helping users complete task quickly and without frustration. Usability evaluation methods such as heruristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs, and user testing help assess a [snorts] product's effectiveness and user friendliness. Usability tests involves real users performing tasks to find any issues in the product's performance. In today's engage and think, we'll use Google Maps to find a new restaurant. Uh you use Google Maps to find a new restaurant. You follow the directions, but you miss a turn because the instructions are not that clear. It's frustrating, right? What went wrong here in the user experience? Is there any way Google Maps could have checked this issue? Especially um I find it happens more so when locations may be new um or certain addresses. um when I say locations meaning um they're like they're newly developed in terms of like having um not a pre-existing business or not a preex existing um establishment. So, I find like when things are like new developments, like new buildings or um they it's a little bit harder to find sometimes or at least at first on um Google Maps where things may be or how to access things. All right, so today's learning objectives are that by the end of this lesson, you will be able to identify popular usability testing tools to understand their features and applications. We'll also demonstrate usability testing in maze to gather actionable insights on user interactions. We'll apply data analysis techniques to interpret test results and improve user experience as well as analyze key usability metrics to assess product effectiveness and identity improvement areas. Last but not least, we'll construct usability reports to communicate findings and recommendations. So, conducting usability testing and we've seen a similar diagram before, right? So, um efficient preparation for usability testing ensures the process runs smoothly and provides valuable insights. Here are key steps to conduct usability, excuse me, to conduct the test effectively. Um objective define objectives. Develop a test plan. Prepare testing materials. Recruit participants. Set up the test the testing environment. Create a modular guide. Conduct a pilot and then ensure ethical considerations. This lesson builds on the usability testing process and focuses on leveraging various tools to conduct usability test effectively. [laughter] So conducting testing conducting usability testing essential tools. Usability testing tools are specialized software or platforms that help designers observe user behavior. These tools allow you to track how users interact with your interface. Um, collecting feedback is where we gather verbal and written feedback from users. Then followed up by analyzing performance metrics where they can measure task completion rates, time spent on task and click paths. And next we'll um be able next the next tool is to generate reports. Um they summarize findings to help communicate issues and suggest improvements. So um popular usability testing tools. Usability testing tools help us understand how users interact with products, identify usability challenges, and enhance the overall user experience. Here's a quick look at some of the most popular usability testing tools. First, we have Maze, um, Hot Jar, User Testing, and Look Back. Has anyone used any of these tools before? >> No, sorry. you were saying that you use um maze or was it I think it was called maze or similar to that uh that's similar to uh Google maps. >> Oh, ways. >> Oh, ways. Sorry, not maze. It was I thought it was another one called maze. Sorry, ways. Sorry, I meant I have to try ways. >> Yeah, ways. Um, W A W A Z E is a um, it's a basically a navigation app. >> Okay. Yeah, I have to try that one to see how it compares. >> Yeah, they have cool voices sometimes to like help you, help guide you. Um, at one point I had Cookie Monster. Another point I think I had um I think they had Keelani and Christina Aguilera. It's pretty cool sometimes. Um but Maze is like a is a usability testing tool that's a little bit different. >> Okay. Okay. >> Ways is uh so gamification you could say. uh like you know you see the little cars, you could tell them that if ther