I think my prototype is at a point now that it is ready to be tested. The main tasks I wanted the user to be able to complete with the prototype have been designed. To prepare for the test I read some articles by Nielsen Norman Group about Usability Testing. One article was the basics of Usability Testing and the other was a more specific article about Facilitation Techniques.

<aside> 💡 What I learned

• Even the best UX designers won’t be able to create a perfect UX first try. It’s an iterative process.
• As a Facilitator, I will give the participant. a realistic set of tasks and answer their questions, but I can not influence the participant’s behaviour.
• Be careful with how you word your tasks. They can be specific or open-ended but should be easy to understand with no errors. The task wording should not influence the participant’s behaviour.
• The participant should be a realistic user of the product, ideally a part of the target user base.
• Participants should be encouraged to “think out loud” that way I can learn about my user group’s behaviour, thoughts and motivations while using the product.
• Qualitative testing is the best for uncovering problems in the product.
• The test group should be at least 5 people to uncover most issues.
• No need for nervous chatter with participants, observe rather than talk too much.
• Echo Technique- Repeat the last phrase the participant says in a slightly interrogative way. E.g. P: This page looks weird F: The page looks weird?
• Boomerang technique- If a user asks a question you can ask a generic, innocuous question back. This pushes their own question back to themselves. E.g. P: Do I have to register to do this F: What do you think? , How would this normally work?
• Columbo Technique- speak slowly and use fewer words. Usually causes the participant to answer quicker or try to finish the facilitator’s thoughts. </aside>

I used this article by UX Collective to help write the questions for my usability test. They are listed below.

Pre-Test Questions

1. What do you hope to see when you use this product?
2. How would you normally set up a new garden project?
3. Have you experienced any frustrations when setting up a garden project before?

Prototype Tasks

You want to get started on rewilding parts of your outdoor space and, from advertisements, you’ve learned that Wilding can guide you throughout the process. Please Sign up to Wilding now and remember to think out loud throughout the test.

1. Before you get started on your own project, you would like to look through other people’s projects in the community. How would you find this?
2. You have decided that you would like to look through the comments on a post to learn other user’s opinions.
3. Now that you know what others are doing, you want to start your own project. Show me how you would start that.
4. While looking at the recommended projects, you decide that you would like to create a wildflower garden. Try viewing the prediction of what this would look like in your outdoor space.
5. You decide that would like to choose this project and continue to see what items and materials you need to complete this project.
6. You have decided that you would like to buy some Butterfly-friendly seeds. Show me how you would add this to your basket and order this item for delivery.
7. Now that you have bought some items you would like to view your project in more detail and learn the tasks involved to create your wildflower garden.
8. After completing some of the tasks you have earned some points. Show me where you can find your place on the leaderboard. View the leaderboard in more detail to see where other users stack up.
9. You have spotted a bug using your wildflower garden. Show me how you would use Wilding to identify this bug.