DigiReactor coaching sessions may be over this time, but it’s great to see the participants continue to develop ideas and digital products. For some of you, it will be or has been the first time doing user testing as part of product development. In this blog, I turn our attention once again to testing activities.
The success of the entire testing process affects the outcome of the test case and the efficiency of product development. Regardless of whether you are determining the viability of an idea or improving an existing product, in order to perform user tests you determine the objectives of the tests, choose suitable methods and prepare a test plan. After the user testing data has been collected and the user test reports are ready, the analysis of the results begins. Based on the analysis, a final test report is prepared, which also gives recommendations for improvements and fixing issues. These are all essential parts of user testing.
Fine-tuning and revealing critical errors
All user test reports and memos are an essential tool for understanding how users interact with your product. These reports may include user feedback, user behavior metrics, and information about user errors and frustrations. By analyzing this data, you can identify patterns and trends that provide insight into how users are using your product and how to improve the user experience and drive product success. For example, you may notice that users are struggling to find a particular feature. This could indicate that the user interface needs to be simplified. By analyzing user test reports, you can identify specific opportunities for improvement based on the data and feedback you have collected. This could include changes to the product design, functionality, user experience or even product safety.
Depending on your research data can be subjective or objective, research can be attitudinal or behavioral and you may be looking at the quantitative and qualitative data to learn from your study. In any case, you should filter and organize all the measurement data, feedback and comments to find problems and reactions that users had in the tests. Taking into account the objectives of the user tests, the results are analyzed and finally reported. Report should summarize the key findings and recommendations from the test, and provide an overall assessment of the success of the test in achieving its goals. After all the findings have been compiled into a final test report and the results have been discussed with the team, planning the next steps is the next part of the user testing process. Simply analyzing user test reports is not enough. It is equally important to follow an action plan based on the insights gleaned from these reports. No report is useful unless the results are acted upon.
Prioritized action plan to manage changes
Once you have identified areas for improvement, create an action plan to address them. This could include design changes, bug fixes or additional user testing. An action plan provides a roadmap for addressing the issues identified in the user test reports and improving the user experience. An effective action plan should prioritize the most critical issues and define clear goals and tasks for addressing these issues. Assigning responsibilities, setting deadlines and monitoring progress are also integral parts an effective action plan. By following an action plan, you can ensure that the insights gleaned from the user test reports are translated into concrete improvements in the user experience.
Well, that wasn’t all there was to it. There is still more testing to be done. Finally, once you have implemented changes based on the user test reports, test again to see if the changes have had a positive impact on the user experience. Continue active collaboration and co-development with your team and network to strive for an even better user experience to improve your product over time. Remember that you are developing a successful product. It was never supposed to be easy, but it can be fun 🙂
Tero Vahanne
Project Engineer
Turku University of Applied Sciences
P.S. here are some articles to support your test planning:
- Amanda Athuraliya. 2022. Mastering Action Plans: A Step-by-Step Guide with Examples. https://creately.com/guides/how-to-write-an-action-plan
- DevriX. 2019. Data Gathering for Product Development and Service Design. https://devrix.com/tutorial/data-gathering-for-product-development-and-service-design
- Fabricio Teixeira. 2021. A comprehensive list of UX design methods & deliverables. https://uxdesign.cc/a-comprehensive-list-of-ux-design-methods-deliverables-2021-2feb3e70e168
- Matthieu Louise. 2021. How to analyze the results of a user test? https://blog.ferpection.com/en/how-to-analyze-the-results-of-a-user-test