The Mystery and Wonder of Usability Tests

[lokheed]

This week I had the good fortune to sit in on a half day of usability tests for one of the components I am responsible for. In the past they have done these tests and then brought me a long list of changes to implement, but I had no real understanding of why the changes were necessary. In this case it was helpful for me to see and hear how users were interacting with the areas I created and it became leapingly obvious where the flow problems were. As an extra benefit, at the end of the process I was able prevent some change requests that would have been impossible to implement in time, and suggest some alternatives that were more realistic. At the end of the day everybody was happy there was a developer directly involved in the process, and although the result was a pile of new work for me it was satisfying work because I could see the direct benefit to the end user. Because it went so well, I will likely be included in other usability tests which means I will be better able to manage the change requests coming into the development team. This is a very good thing.