As part of our job as Product Designers, user-testing is a very important way to gather feedback from users. To get the most accurate and actionable results from any user test, you must ask the right questions first and avoid user research bias.
1. Not define the objective of the testing
This might sound silly, but I’ve seen so many times Product Designers and Managers preparing user testing without defining the test objective first. A clear objective makes it much easier to create a proper list of questions.
2. Focus on completing tasks rather than the journey
People feel good after completing a task, and they tend to provide nothing but positive feedback. Basically, users might forget all the frictions during the test—frictions that are so important to you — they used to tell you the journey was perfect because they’ve achieved their goal.
One way to avoid this scenario is to ask participants to think out loud and vocalize every single thought that comes to their minds while they use the product.
3. Ask participants designer’s questions
Another item that I’ve seen sometimes and it’s very common is to see designers adding to their usability testing questions related to design decisions. During the design process, we find ourselves in a position where we want to collect the most feedback we can and this helps us to make more accurate decisions. But sometimes, testing very small differences in visuals, that only another designer can identify, won’t bring you clarity and accurate data. Remember: you are not the user, and the user isn’t a designer.
4- Not document your findings
After spending time on research, designers might feel tempted to rush through the analysis of the results and jump into making the necessary changes to move on to the next step in the project. But you should include a reasonable amount of time to analyze all the findings and document them will ensure that even the people who couldn’t attend the testing will know the results.
5- Conducting biased questions
A leading question encourages the person to give a particular answer. They should be avoided in research as they influence the way participants think and imply what kind of information you expect to confirm. Some examples of biased questions: What do you dislike about this? you’re prompting the users to think negatively about that particular part instead of getting uncovering truthful and honest feedback.
Conclusion
Usability tests can give you key insights that let you improve your design. However, it can take much effort to get better feedback from participants.