Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Who Should Test Your Product?

Unless you are designing a product that targets a very specific group of people, who you invite for usability tests typically doesn’t matter much. And even if you do target a particular group, it still makes sense to test with people from outside of that group as well. There are two reasons for this.

One is that people are surprisingly consistent in how they behave. If you have big problems in your design, you’ll probably find them regardless of who you recruit as a tester.

The other is that even if you target specific groups of people, the members of this group may not be entirely homogeneous. Certain people will be more experienced with the topic than others. By intentionally and exclusively picking testers from ...