Usability Testing and Research

In this video course, usability testing consultant Amy Eastment teaches best practices for user research and usability testing, from start to finish. You'll learn how to sell the need for usability testing to your organization, choose the right people for your team, conduct tests efficiently, and present the results.

She covers six key steps involved in user research and testing: test requirements brainstorming, scripting, recruiting and scheduling, logistics identification and preparation, conducting interviews, and reporting findings. She also provides a few real-life examples of ways you can incorporate user research into your ongoing product development cycle.

• Learn to carefully isolate the problems and questions you're trying to solve before you begin
• Understand the value of a testing script and how to put one together
• Discover user recruitment shortcuts like pop-up surveys, guerilla testing, and Craigslist
• Review the best ways to prepare your products or ideas for testing
• Explore tips and tricks for ensuring the success of in-person and remote interviews
• Pin down the best techniques for reporting findings and integrating them into your products
• Walk through the preparation and logistical planning for two theoretical research studies: conducting user research for B2B SaaS platform and testing a new feature in a B2C consumer marketplace

Amy Eastment has spent the last decade working in design, product development, and engineering at places like the MIT Media Lab, HubSpot, and BitSight Technologies. She also teaches research and web design at Startup Institute.