Watching them work

Jared Spool has written a couple interesting posts recently regarding usability tests. Please check them both out: Usability Tests with 30 Observers and More on Usability Tests with 30 Observers. In More on Usability Tests with 30 Observers Jared states, (in regards to performing usability observation tests),

“Having the observers in the same room as the participants means they can interact. I’ve found developers and stakeholders come away from sessions they attend this way with a solid connection to the users they are trying to design for.”

Though I have yet to perform any formalized usability tests, I have some experience in performing business and systems analysis for software development and I completely agree with his assessment. There is a certain amount, and quality, of data you can collect by talking to project champions and management, but nothing beats sitting down with the end users and watching them work.

When you can watch the “real people” doing what they do every day in the environment they do it in every day, you are able to observe far more than anyone could even think to tell you. I have often noticed redundancies in processes, latency in system performance and peculiarities in user behavior. I have even witnessed users mumble profanities under their breath aimed at the application they’re using. But maybe the most useful thing that comes from these types of observations is questions.

I am able to ask questions that are immediately pertinent. I can ask interrogative questions based on what the user is doing at that moment. I think this is important for two reasons. For one, I am asking questions that help move my understanding along at a rate and level my mind wants to work. And secondly, the users are in the right frame of mind to answer the questions. If you were to ask the same question when the user was not working, he or she might not know the answer.

Maybe the lesson here is that the first step to improving user interaction is to interact with the user.