VietMX Staff asked 3 years ago
Whether you’re new usability testing or want to improve your know-how, we want to share with you our best tips for creating usability tasks. Tasks are the backbone of usability testing:
- Define user goals.Before you conduct usability testing, and preferably before you design anything—you should always start by understanding your users’ goals. If you define user goals from the start, it will help you draft tasks for usability testing.
- Start with a simple task.For users to become accustomed to the testing experience and your product, start your test with one simple task.
- Give users one task at a time.Avoid grouping tasks together—this will create lengthy and complicated instructions, and users will have to be reminded about what they have to do. Split tasks up to create the focus on a single ‘to-do’ activity for your users.
- Follow your design’s flow.When a new user arrives on your website, they do certain actions first, e.g., sign up or log in. To create a realistic user test, follow the same flow users take in your live website or product.
- Make tasks actionable.The premise of usability testing is to learn if users can complete tasks using your product. For this, you have to create similar tasks to those users do in real life in your app or website.
- Set a scenario. Such a description gives users the task (purchase plane tickets) while being clear on why they need to do it (holidays are coming up). This scenario also shares the details they need to know to be able to complete the task.
- Avoid giving precise instructions.One of the most important rules for writing usability tasks is to avoid giving precise instructions for completing the tasks or using leading words in your phrasing.
