Convert interface-centric questions into tasks for better user testing

archiveyandleblog

A useful trick for improving usability scripts.

  1. Identify a design-centric question, for example:

    "What does this red dot mean?"

  2. Write the ideal answer, in this case:

    "The red dot is the number of items needed to complete this box"

  3. Reword that sentence as a task thus:

    "State the number of items needed to complete this box

This gives us a task which can’t be completed by a person who doesn’t understand the element in question.

Partially written by a human