Test

With a prototype that demonstrates your idea built on user research and insights, you will now want to understand if your prototyped idea is the optimal solution for users. At the “Test” stage, you evaluate your concepts with users.

Usability testing is a process of asking real users to perform tasks that help you and your team identify problems with your prototype and idea. You can use these sessions to collect valuable quantitative and qualitative data. For example, you might note down how long it took a user to complete a specific task (quantitative) while also asking them how they found the service and if it fits within their day-to-day research lab work (qualitative).

Sometimes the usability testing sessions are structured where users are given a defined task. Other times, it may be a more open-ended session.

The testing stage is also a great opportunity to get your team involved so that they can see exactly how users are using the tool or service.

Once you have tested with a group of users, say 4 or 5 users, you will want to collect the feedback and then present your findings to your team.

After evaluating user feedback, you may find that your prototype is not the optimal solution. There is often a refinement of our prototypes at this stage, frequently influenced by further usability testing, though we may still use sketching to explore possibilities and to deepen our understanding. For example, users may not understand the tool or product or service and it might not fit within the context of their day-to-day work.

Alternatively, users may have uncovered minor usability issues like broken links or buttons that you can fix.

Depending on the feedback, you can either choose to proceed with the prototype and make minor fixes and get ready to release it. Or you may decide to go back to the “Ideate” stage to come up with new ideas.