How to do (minimal) user testing in 3 easy steps:
- Buy a chocolate bar.
- Trade the chocolate bar for 5 minutes of a colleagues time and opinions on whatever you're working on.
- Do it again.
If your colleague has questions, turn them into follow up questions like "that's interesting, do you think it should be like that?". Remember that to learn what anyone outside your little bubble thinks you'll benefit from muddying the water by reintroducing your assumptions and thinking.
Other follow up questions that might help:
- Given what you've seen/ heard, who do you think this is for?
- Where would you go to find ...... ?
- What would you expect to happen if you ........ ?
When you make something, you bake in your limited perspective. You can't help this, you're just one person. What this means is that you have missed things. The most effective way to mitigate this and save everyone a lot of wasted time and energy is to test early and test often. Crappy testing is better than no testing. Try it and you'll be surprised and rewarded.
This is sweet. I actually dig the pithy style. I think it walks the knife edge of credibility. Either comes of super credible or super not. Love that it's simple and short. Not like a teddy article.
I think the general problem people have is not neccessarily that they don't know they SHOULD user test, its HOW to user test. So in that case 2 becomes the core value of something like this. What you've got is sweet, but 2 is the thing I really want the recipe for, not the whole thing.
Also, what am I user testing? What is this generally useful for? There's heaps of detailed stuff about user testing software online, maybe the distiguishing characteristic of this can be that you highlight a more generalizable idea of "user testing" - like user testing a cookie recipe, or a piece of writing, or a plan that you're cooking up for work.
Why should come earlier IMHO.
Maybe add a "related materials" section
Really enjoy example style things. Would really appreciate more contextual stuff, but with the same level of consiceness.
<3