3 Ways to test like a user
Using software is like communication, 90% nonverbal - or so people say. User experience is guided by design and structure. To make better software we must understand and test how a user interacts with it. There are lots of good and bad software applications out there, and many developers fail when they do not design with a specific target user in mind.
The most important thing is how the user interacts with the product. If we fail to build an app that the user wants, then it is just another line of code. How do we accomplish this? We become the user. Putting yourself in the user’s shoes is the best way to understand for whom and why we are building the product.
Here are three things that will improve user experience by testing products as a user.
1. Make user personas
We all know at least one person in our family that is “technologically challenged”. For example, not using their iWatch to pay for lunch or struggling to call an uber through an app on their phone. We can also name a person who is pre-ordering the new iPhone two months before it comes out and is #opensource for life. These two types of people are users but would interact with software differently. These two examples are personas.
Using personas is a technique that supports designing and engineering interactive systems with focus on the end-users. A persona is a description of a fictitious person based on data collected about the target user group.
Example Persona: Jordan Baker
A 29 year old male, father of a 2 month old and married to his highschool sweetheart. He lives in a starter home in the suburbs and commutes to the city every day for work in oil and gas. He drives a lifted truck that seems to always be covered in mud. He plays golf with his friends as much as he can but money is tight…
Personas are extremely valuable because they help guide decisions regarding functionality and design. It’s important to understand these personas while testing software and even more importantly, to understand which one or ones you are targeting. It’s safe to say that software designed for a 3 year old will look, feel, and react differently than software built for a college student or your grandma.
When designing a new product, it’s important to discover and specify a key group of personas that fit the user category.
2. Understanding their needs
As we look at the library of the personas each one of them will have specific needs as a user of the product. Jordan needs things to be quick and easy. He already has 20 things to worry about and his time is valuable. On the other hand, Mary, a 97 year old grandma, needs everything to be large because her eyesight just “isn’t what it used to be.”
Developers should build in cues to guide the user and teach them how to interact with their product. Each user will need different cues to understand how to interact with a software, based on their needs. These cues should help address the needs of our target persona. For example, a 3-year-old would understand large square or circle icons as buttons but would not intuitively know what to do with a search field. Understanding the needs of various personas will allow us to identify features that are most needed.
After you have decided on your core persona(s), think about what cues would be best to guide your persona through the software. Ask questions like “what is important to Mary when she looks at her bank statement” or “where would Jordan most likely access his app, and what time of day would he do it.” This is where we see true benefits of the persona-based testing and development. Once we have all the important questions answered, we can start building. We can focus on Jordan, instead of a nameless marketing demographic like ”25-35 year old males with a family.”
3. Put yourself in their shoes
Now, we have our personas and we know their behavior. Then, we need to use software like they would. This can be challenging. But when it comes to testing, step out of your developer role, and think like a user. It’s best if you can even put yourself in their shoes. What would be important for them? And why? Think of your persona and create a story in your head of how they interact with your app.
If you are building a time management software product for the workplace, then think of the things that could have happened to Jordan that morning and what mood or moods he may be in. “What would Jordan do when logging in for the first time” or “would Mary find this back button?” When we see these situations through their eyes, we will see the product differently.
This can be very difficult at times. But, it is essential if the goal is to make a software that our target audience can and will use. When actual user feedback is hard to get, personas are the next best thing. Asking these questions will bring the users to life and spark changes to design that may not have been obvious before.
The app we are developing is not for us but for the user. Personas allow us to fine tune design and understand the different user experiences. Developing and testing your product like a user will elevate the experience for the target audience and ultimately produce a product people want to use.
Can you imagine yourself as a user? Can you put yourself in different types of end-user situations? How do you user test your software without access to actual users?