Who are Nielsen Norman Group (NNG)?
The Nielsen Norman Group is an American computer user interface and user experience consulting firm, founded in 1998 by Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman. Their work includes an analysis of the interface of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. They are world leaders in research-based user experience.
Kyle suggested that we look into this because the founders have written some great books on user research and usability testing. So I wanted to do some of my own research into the company and their beliefs on users. I went on their website to find out more and read some published articles.
Usability 101
This article was on their top 10 article selection and this was perfect because this is what I am currently looking at. This article was a great help in getting me to understand what usability testing is, how to do it and they even provided how-to videos on how to set up your own testing. Here is what I learnt from the article.
The phrase “usability testing” is often used interchangeably with “user testing.”
Why Usability Test?
The goals of usability testing vary by study, but they usually include:
- Identifying problems in the design of the product or service
- Uncovering opportunities to improve
- Learning about the target user’s behaviour and preferences
The article stated that the only way to get UX design right is to test!
Then the article went into tasks, facilitator and the participant. What interested me was the test section and the article even gave some examples of some of nng’s previous tasks.
Examples of tasks from real usability studies:
- Your printer is showing “Error 5200”. How can you get rid of the error message?
- You’re considering opening a new credit card with Wells Fargo. Please visit wellsfargo.com and decide which credit card you might want to open, if any.
- You’ve been told you need to speak to Tyler Smith from the Project Management department. Use the intranet to find out where they are located. Tell the researcher your answer.
This was very helpful because I got to see what sort of tasks they ask. I also read that they often ask participants to read the task instructions out loud. This helps ensure that the participant reads the instructions completely, and helps the researchers with their note-taking, because they always know which task the user is performing.
The next part of the article was how NNG use different types of usability testing and what they are. There is,
- Qualitive vs Quantitive
- Remote vs In-person
I then took a look at the short videos they had on User Testing and found one called “User Testing: How and Why? by Jakob Neilson”.
I learned a lot from watching this short video and one of the main take aways from it was that it is vital to test all products because I(the designer) am not the user and therefore it is important to test because I know the device and they do not. It was great to watch Neilson himself discuss why it is important and I feel much more educated on the matter.