Usability Testing: Take control of testing your product with users
Plan and moderate a usability test of your own product with this interactive, live streamed, online course
We bring this course to you—live and instructor-led—via Zoom. (4 x 2hr sessions)

What you’ll learn

Moderate a usability test

Plan and run a remote usability test using the 'think aloud' method

Identify top tasks

Identify your users' key tasks and discover how to prioritise them

Write test scenarios

Get practice turning key tasks into usability testing scenarios

Choose a technique

Distinguish between lab-based, pop-up, remote, moderated and unmoderated tests

Involve your team

Write an agile test plan to engage your product team in the test.

Interpret user research data

Prioritise findings and generate design insights to move your project forward

We make virtual house calls!

We can bring this training course to you and run it live via Zoom no matter where you are. Virtual UX training allows you to train distributed teams, furloughed workers or when your organisation is social distancing.

Usability testing: Course Overview

In this structured program of 4, instructor-led, workshops, you'll discover how to plan and moderate a usability test of your own product, analyse the data and generate design insights to share with the development team.

You'll spend at least 2 hours actually taking part in usability tests. This will ensure you obtain the practical moderation skills that you can't get from reading books or blog posts.

Class sizes are small and delivered live via Zoom. Combined with practice projects, this helps you build skills, confidence and expertise in usability testing.

Through real-time presentations, quizzes and interactive activities, you'll learn the theory of usability testing and practice usability test moderation.

In a nutshell

Is it for you? Find out in this 2 minute video.

What students say about this course

Testimonials from delegates who attended the face-to-face version of this course.

"I will be showing the video to my IT director as it highlights a few potential issues with our site. The course has provided some ROI already."

Ed Hill, moonpig.com.

"Hands down the most useful (and usable) training I've had."

Duncan Barrett, Mobile Interactive Group.

"I now realise that what we've been calling 'usability testing' only scratches the surface of true usability testing. I'm looking forward to trying out some new techniques!"

Peter Dearden, Vertex.

About your trainer

David Travis

UX Strategist

This course is delivered live by Dr. David Travis, the author of Think Like a UX Researcher. David has more than 20 years experience in the field of user research and has delivered over 250 seminars for a range of private and public sector organisations. He has carried out 100s of usability test sessions for teams working on both digital and physical products.

This training course is aimed at

  • Interface designers who want to experience hands-on techniques for testing and evaluating their designs with end users.
  • Developers on digital teams who want to validate their assumptions about users.
  • Project managers who want to manage the usability testing process.
  • Marketing managers who want to see samples of usability test plans, questionnaires, screeners and other deliverables from usability tests.
  • Business analysts dissatisfied with UAT who want to add usability testing to their skillset.
  • Digital designers who want to learn the kind of practical knowledge that you can't get from reading a book.

Questions?

When do the sessions take place?

The course comprises 4 x 2-hr workshops, delivered live and instructor-led over Zoom. We schedule the sessions to fit in with your working day, for example, 2 days per week over 2 weeks. Each session is split into 2 x 1hr periods with a 15min break.

What if I can't make every session?

Each session will be recorded and you'll be able to carry out the practice activities in your own time.

What do I need to take part?

You will need a (free) Google account to take part in the workshops and you will need a device that can access Zoom to attend the workshop sessions. Students enrolled in the course carry out assignments and collaborative work using Google Docs and Mural. You can use Zoom and Mural without creating an account.

How does the course run?

Usability testing is delivered entirely online. Once you're registered for the program, you’ll be granted access to the course's class page. This is where you'll get links for the live sessions, watch the recordings of previous sessions, submit homework assignments, download slide decks, access project activities and view workshop notes. Class size is limited to 12 delegates to allow maximum time for questions.

Curriculum

The course comprises 4 x 2-hr workshops.


Workshop 1

2 hrs instructor-led training plus homework

Introduction to usability testing

  • Formative versus summative testing.
  • The landscape of usability testing methods.

Preparing for user research: Forming a test strategy

  • The Usability Test Plan Dashboard.
  • Syndicate activity: Turn these half-formed questions from the team into designs for a usability test.
  • Syndicate activity: Create a test plan dashboard.
  • The Landauer-Nielsen formula: Why 5 participants are (usually) enough.

Workshop 2

2 hrs instructor-led training plus homework

Preparing for user research: Writing Test Tasks

  • Turning tasks into usability test scenarios.
  • A taxonomy of test tasks.
  • The 5 questions to ask of a usability test scenario.
  • Syndicate activity: What's wrong with these usability test scenarios?
  • Syndicate activity: Create test scenarios for a usability test.

How to conduct a “thinking aloud” usability test

  • The 3 hats you wear as a usability test moderator.
  • Syndicate activity: Observe videos of moderators welcoming a test participant.
  • The 5 mistakes that test moderators make when using the thinking aloud protocol.
  • The 3 components of usability and how to measure each one.
  • Creating a post-test usability survey.

Workshop 3

2 hrs instructor-led training plus homework

Run a remote, moderated usability test

  • Pilot testing your study
  • Practical activity: Run a remote, moderated usability test.
  • Instructor feedback to test moderators.

Workshop 4

2 hrs instructor-led training

How to process research data: Finding and fixing usability problems

  • Analyse your data with an affinity diagram.
  • Generating research insights and design ideas.
  • Sharing your results.

Wrap up

  • Opportunity for final questions.
  • Development activities.

How do I book?

Join the waitlist and be the first to hear when this course opens for enrolment.