I’ve performed a lot of user tests throughout my career using some standard user testing templates to help me. I’ve worked with participants from every type and size of organization from startup to enterprise and everything in between. There are a couple of comments that I hear regularly during these sessions:

The other scenario I commonly hear is:

We have a small but growing team at ProdPad, so being able to test something quickly, learn from it, iterate, and then test again is really important. It enables us to keep up the pace at which startups need to move, and it enables me personally to keep ahead of our Development team – and keep them fed with a constant supply of features and improvements that we know our users want. 

In this blog, I aim to highlight the tools that I use to perform my user tests to show that you don’t have to break the bank to start this kind of work.

Design

In order to perform a user test, you first need something that you want to learn from. You don’t need a finished, high-fidelity design to user-test a theory, you can do it with paper and pens at the most basic level. Just draw rough sketches of an interface on a piece of paper, and then take photographs of the pages. These can then be linked together using wireframing tools, allowing users to navigate through a workflow made up of rough drawings. It’s enough to start learning from.

Many designers use Balsamiq to create low-fidelity wireframes to use in their testing sessions. A free, open-source alternative to this is called Pencil, and it comes fully equipped with basic shapes and many common interface components and controls so that users can simply drag and drop and create an interface design in minutes.

All of my interface designs start off life as simple sketches in a notebook, and then evolve into a Pencil interface design, before reaching high-fidelity for hand-over to Development.

Wireframing 

Once you have an idea of the workflow(s) that you wish to user-test and have designs/sketches for each of the screens in the workflow, there are a number of tools that will allow you to sequence these together in order to test your assumptions. They will also allow you to identify the troublesome areas of the design.

I primarily use Marvel for this, it’s a tool that allows users to upload images (of any fidelity) and then sequence them together with invisible hotspots. Test candidates can then navigate through the images and you can observe their interactions.

It is a very feature-rich tool, with the ability to have not only click-interactions, but hover, fixed elements, transition animations, and more. It’s very simple for even complete novices to use, with very little difficulty in terms of a learning curve.

Marvel offers a free plan with users able to have two active projects at any time.

A popular (and probably more well-known) alternative to Marvel is InVision. The two tools are fairly similar in terms of wireframing functionality, and it’s purely down to personal preference as to which tool suits you.

Test Preparation

Once you have a suitable wireframe that covers the interactions that you would like to user-test, then it’s time to write your user-test tasks.

I use a template for user testing, where I can write a scenario and task details, with space available for note-taking and the ability to grade each task so that I can capture both qualitative and quantitative data from all participants.

I use Google Docs to write these user-test documents, which is free to use

Recruiting User Test Candidates

Organizations have a variety of procedures for product teams to contact their customers. In my previous companies, I have had difficulty in getting permission from account managers and such to invite their customers to take part in user testing. At ProdPad we have a very open and direct line of communication between the company and customers, so it’s much easier for me to recruit user-test candidates than the experience that some of you may have.

That being said, there are a few basic tools that I use to recruit user-test candidates and manage sessions. 

Calendly is a tool that integrates directly with whatever calendar that you use (Google Calendar for me). It allows you to create an ‘Event’, set a date and time, a meeting place (virtual or physical), duration, and more. Once an event has been created, you simply send it to your potential candidates by whichever means are available to you (email is likely the primary form of communication for most companies). 

I take the approach that user-test candidates are helping us out, so I am extremely flexible and accommodating with regard to availability. Candidates are able to book themselves into my calendar at whatever time is convenient, and regardless of what I am doing, I will drop it and perform the test, as they have offered their time to us.

Another method for recruitment is Slack. ProdPad has nurtured an amazing ProdPad Slack Community and has a very engaged customer base. When I have a feature or product improvement that I wish to user-test, I can post a message to the community with my Calendly event link, and am guaranteed to get a handful of customers who are willing to participate. You only need a handful of candidates in order to start learning and spotting commonalities between tests. It’s definitely worth checking out what communities exist in your industry or in the problem space you’re supporting, and see if anyone is willing to offer you their time.

Remote User Test

As with most companies these days, ProdPad has customers in all corners of the globe. This means that the most efficient way of performing user tests is remotely.

The majority of user tests that I perform are moderated, and I sit in remotely on the session with the candidate.

I use a couple of basic tools to facilitate this. I use Google Hangouts as the remote video conferencing tool to perform the user tests. It allows for video and audio, as well as screen sharing and text-based messaging. Of course, many of us are now using Zoom, which is an alternative to using Google’s tools.

I use a tool called OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) alongside this, it allows me to record the video and audio from my computer so that I can facilitate the user test without any distractions. It also means I can review and take notes from the session at a later date.

Reviewing User Tests

After a session has finished and I’ve saved and exported the OBS video file, it’s time to review the session. You will first need a media player to do this, with VLC being one of the best available.

I then take notes against each of the tasks in the original user test Google Doc and grade each task.

In order to visualize the quantitative data (task grades), I copy the tasks and grades into a Google Sheet and create a chart from the data. This shows which tasks users were able to complete successfully and immediately highlights any problem areas.

It’s easy to get started

When you’re just starting out, consider doing user tests on specific, small, changes, and with some of your internal stakeholders first, so you can get used to the process and iron out the wrinkles. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on each test – maybe only 10-15 minutes. This will help you have more confidence when you start talking to customers and make the whole thing run according to plan. In general, I find that customers are keen to share their thoughts, and are happy to be listened to, so see this as a way you can hone your product skills in a structured way.

To summarize, it really isn’t as hard to get going with user testing as you’d expect. The cost doesn’t have to be high, and if you practice beforehand, you’ll soon know what you’re doing. 

If you want to learn more about how ProdPad supports the design team, check out our article on How ProdPad Fits with Design

The post Rapid User Testing with $0 Budget appeared first on ProdPad.

Prodoodle(ling) has helped ProdPad build on its collaborative, creative and inspiring culture. Sure, it’s easy to throw those kind of terms around, but it’s even easier to get caught up in the busy-ness of business and not do anything practical to achieve them. But at ProdPad, we make the time!

What is Prodoodle?

Prodoodle is a creative workshop held twice a month. The whole company comes together and embraces the silliness, brilliance, failure and success that creativity entails. During this time, we’re also creating connections that grow beyond that space. 

The design games we play are focused on our work, providing inspiration to people in all departments – not just those in creative-led roles. For example, the marketing team has found the games really valuable when looking at company branding and messaging. There’s also a friendly competitive spirit (it turns out ProdPadders love winning). 

Where did the idea come from?

I joined ProdPad’s design team last August. When discussing my past creative endeavours I mentioned a drawing night that I used to run called Drinkydoodle. I set up Drinkydoodle with a fellow student (Billy Mather), while studying for an MA in Illustration at Brighton University. Our goal was to encourage drawing as a fun and accessible activity. 

Drinkydoodle turned out to be pretty popular; mostly hosted in Sticky Mike’s Bar in Brighton, we also got invited to put it on in museums, art galleries and even a frogurt factory. The event itself consisted of a series of short drawing games, with the results of each game being immediately displayed in a makeshift gallery. 

It turns out ProdPad’s Product Designer, Kav, had been wanting to do a creative workshop of some kind for a while but hadn’t had the scope (being the start and end of the design team tends to keep you busy). And thus, thanks to his enthusiasm and backing, Prodoodle was born!

How to do your own Prodoodle

Now, enough waffling from me, I’m sure you’re keen to get your own team Prodoodling. Here are just some of the games that we’ve found have worked well at ProdPad so far. Do get in touch if you have any questions – we’re always here to help. 

1) The Product Box

Your app may be a digital SaaS product, but what if it was sold in a box, on a store shelf, like in days of yore?

• How would you grab people’s attention?
• What would you highlight as a reason to buy?
• What requirements are there for use?

(Note: If you don’t make a digital product, this could still work as a creative exercise. Presumably you already have some kind of packaging for your physical product, but let your non-designers have a go at re-imagining it) 

We found this game via – https://gamestorming.com/design-the-box/ adapting it a little for our own purposes. 

How does it work?

• Break the players into teams of three or four people
• Each team spends 15 minutes coming up with lots of ideas and sketching them out
• Each team then presents their initial ideas to the group
• Teams then have 20 minutes to produce their box by drawing, writing, painting, sticking etc… on the box templates provided
• Be sure to leave a few minutes to assemble the box at the end
• Each team then presents their box to the group
• A winner is chosen and a prize awarded

Materials

• Pens
• Paper
• Card box templates

What’s the benefit?

This exercise helps your team to think laterally about your product by changing the context, to come up with some interesting ideas (that the marketing team might be able to use), and produce a fun and colourful outcome.

2) World’s Worst

In this game we’re going to flip things on their head. Instead of trying to be the best, we’re going to try to be the very worst.

How does it work?

In teams of three(ish), the aim is to create a presentation for the worst possible (whatever you want) product. 

The final presentation may be a series of wireframe sketches from the app, an elevator pitch, some marketing materials, or anything else that will explain the awfulness of the really terrible app.

• Teams have 15 minutes to come up with their initial ideas
• Each team will then quickly present these ideas
• Teams will then have another 20 minutes iterating on their ideas and putting together the final presentation
• They will then present their app to the group
• The winning team is awarded a prize

Materials

• Pens
• Paper

We found this game via – http://www.uxforthemasses.com/worlds-worst/  but again adapted it a little for our own purposes. 

What’s the benefit?

It’s easier to know what to avoid once the worst is understood. This helps to align everyone on what you do, want to do, and should help everyone to understand the vision and direction of the product more clearly. 

3) Product Stones

Secret Stones is a game children play whereby they paint a stone and include their name or a message and then hide it somewhere for others to find. Upon finding a stone, the finder stealthily takes a photo of themselves with the stone, posts it to social media (usually a local Secret Stones Facebook page) and then carefully puts it back where it was for the next person to find.

How does it work?

Each player will think of a Product Management tip/pitfall which they will then write on one side of the stone, and then paint a visual representation of it on the other.

• Each person has 30 minutes to ‘paint’ their stone
• They each then share the tip/pitfall and the painted stone with the group
• A prize will be awarded for the best overall tip/stone
• But… it’s not over yet
• They then hand in the stones to be hidden
• Each player then needs to try and find as many stones as possible, stealthily take a photo with it, and post the stone and tip to Twitter with #ProductStones (or something similar). The person who finds and shares the most stones & tips will also win a prize

Note: We did this with product management tips as that’s our thing, but the content can be adapted to your industry.

Materials

• Enough pebbles or stones for at least one for each per person
• Paint & brushes, or we found paint pens worked well as they made less mess

What’s the benefit?

Writing and drawing the stones gets people thinking about how to highlight some quick and pithy tips or pitfalls, sharing the stones on social media helps with getting new content out on those channels, which helps with marketing and brand awareness. It’s also pretty fun for everyone searching around for the stones.

4) Doodling Prodoodle

A series of short drawing games with an aim to promote drawing as a tool for thinking and communicating. The target audience is definitely people who can’t draw as much as people who can.

How does it work?

Alphadoodle

Prepare one sheet for every person who will be playing. Write a letter of the alphabet on each piece, then distribute the sheets amongst everyone. 

The players have three minutes to draw as many things as possible that start with the letter on their sheet. 

Finish the drawing

Prepare one sheet of paper per person who will be playing. Draw a squiggly line or two on each piece, then distribute the sheets amongst everyone. 

The players have three minutes to create a picture using your lines as a starting point. You can pick a theme for the images too to get people going. 

Quick draw

Each player has 60 seconds to draw a self portrait

Frankendoodle

Based on the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, this works best using A3 sheets of paper. Fold the paper into four equal strips and mark one for the head, one for the body, one for the legs and one for the feet. The sheets can then be passed around amongst the players until their creations are complete. 

Lucky draw

Players pick out a verb from one hat and a noun from another hat (these need to be written on little bits of paper in advance), they then have three minutes to draw the combined thing – whatever that is.

Drawn together

Each player writes their name on a little piece of paper and puts it into the hat. The players then take it in turns picking a name. They then have to draw that person. This game is great for breaking the ice if people don’t know each other too well. 

Shout out

Players take it in turns shouting out random things for everyone to draw. Each drawing should be done in 30 seconds to keep movement going. This can be carried on for as long as wanted.  

Materials

• Lots of paper
• Pens
• String and clothes-pegs to hang up the pictures at the end of each round 

What’s the benefit?

Drawing is a really useful tool for explaining ideas. These games serve to increase the players confidence in their drawing abilities and their ability to communicate with their drawings. As with all of the other Prodoodle games described they also help with team building and creative thinking. At ProdPad we find it really beneficial and worthwhile.

Let us know how you get on with your own versions of prodoodle. Tweet us at @prodpad and share your stories.

The post Prodoodle: What Is It All About? appeared first on ProdPad.