G U E R I L L A U S A B I L I T Y T E S T I N G

W H AT I S “ G U E R I L L A ” U S A B I L I T Y T E S T I N G ?

“ T H E A R T O F P O U N C I N G O N L O N E P E O P L E I N C A F E S A N D P U B L I C

S PA C E S , [ T H E N ] Q U I C K LY F I L M I N G T H E M W H I L S T

T H E Y U S E A W E B S I T E F O R A C O U P L E O F M I N U T E S . ”

!- M A R T I N B E L A M

B U T W H Y S H O U L D I ?

• Quick and easy

• Cheap

• Identify pain points in your product

• Growth- Conversion Funnel (ex. Are people not converting because they cant find the CTA button?)

• Sales- Make sure the product you are selling is easy to use

W H E N S H O U L D I U S E I T ?

• Product has broad target audience

• To quickly identify usability issues

• WHENEVER POSSIBLE!

• (Not useful for software that requires specific knowledge (ex. CRM software)

S T E P 1 : P L A N T H E T E S T

• Location

• What product to test

S T E P 2 : C R E AT E TA S K S A N D D I S C U S S I O N G U I D E

• Think about WHAT you want to test

• Do not use leading words

• Ask user to imagine she is in a certain scenario

• Boilerplate for Discussion Guide

S T E P 3 : R E C R U I T I N G PA R T I C I PA N T S

• Test 4-6 people

• Appropriate locations for product

• Buy them coffee!

S T E P 4 : S E T T I N G U P T H E E N V I R O N M E N T

• Have product/prototype ready to go

• Screen recording software (Quicktime, Silverback, etc)

• Have NDA’s

S T E P 5 : M O D E R AT I N G S E S S I O N S

• Assure they can’t do anything wrong

• Let them FAIL!

• Never start with a description/demo

• Ask follow up questions

• Ask open ended questions

S T E P 6 : A N A LY Z E T H E D ATA

• Organize your data

• Observe trends

• Create/propose solutions!

USABLE PRODUCTS = HAPPY GORILLAS