How much time do people spend on their phones with mobile apps? Creating an app
for your business is a great way to ensure that people can find your service
correctly on their phone. The main thing in any mobile application is its usability.
Find out in this article on how to conduct testing usability on mobile application.
Here several steps to conduct an effective usability test on mobile application:
Define your objectives
Once you have a goal for a big idea, narrow it down to a specific goal. The goal may
be to determine which aspects of mobile app users you like. Maybe they find it easy
to use or like the color you assigned. Another goal is to see if the new features help
or prevent a user from completing a particular task. Make sure you have some core
goals and some flexible goals no matter what you decide. The main goal is the
question you ask every time you run a usability test. Flexible goals are goals that
rely on new updates or changes that did not exist before.
Design a task
Next, design the tasks you want to impose on your users. There are some
important guidelines to follow when designing usability tasks. First, remove the
placeholder text such as "loremipsum" and the draft of what should be there, even
if the mobile app is still under development. This helps people better understand
how to navigate the site and determine what information is important. When they
look at placeholder text everywhere, you don't really understand how they value
the information presented to them. Do not put hints in the instructions. By providing
additional tips and hints, you can take actions that you wouldn't otherwise think of.
Make sure the statement is unambiguous before running the test. If you leave the
instructions to interpretation, the result may make your app appear unfriendly.
Choose from lab settings or remote test
If you choose a lab environment or run your tests remotely, there is more than one
right choice. However, each option has its strengths and weaknesses. You don't
need a real lab to run your tests in a lab environment. This means that you are
running your own tests in a controlled environment. The laboratory setting has the
advantage of receiving additional observations. Even small things like hesitation
and eyebrow ridges can tell you a lot about the user experience. They also have
complete control over the environment in which their experience and testing takes
place. The disadvantage of the lab setup is the risk of tampering with the results
due to the framing effect. If you ask a question incorrectly or provide too much
information, you will get results that reflect the knowledge and experience of the
app, not the user. The advantage of remote testing is that you don't have to commit
to hosting users anytime, anywhere. Users complete the test in their own time, you
receive the results and save your team time. Also, as mentioned earlier, remote
testing is a great way to avoid the framing effect. There are many mobile UX test
tools, so choose one that will help you measure your key goals.
Ready, Set, Run the Test
When your app is ready you can run the usability test. One option is to ask your
participants to think out loud as they work through the tasks and getting their
feedback is great. If you`re running a test remotely, this can give you extra
information about their thought process. The downside of this is that speaking out
loud can be distracting or cause the user to complete the test more slowly than
otherwise. When conducting a lab test, you can take advantage of face-to-face
encounters to ask questions in progress. However, it is important to ask questions in
a non-judgmental and non-leading tone. Finally, you can moderate it later. In this
type of moderation, users are asked to watch their own replays and explain their
actions. Alternatively, you will be asked to elaborate on the specific choices you
have made.
