In this guide, we'll show you how to structure and conduct a usability test on Hotjar Engage.
At this stage, you've recruited participants, reviewed their answers to the screener questions, selected the people you want to interview, and they've booked their call.
Here's how you can run a productive usability test:
Build rapport and break the ice.
Try to have a natural conversation to make the participant feel relaxed and comfortable.
Introduce yourself in a friendly manner and tell them what this research is about. It’s good to give context and explain what you're researching so they understand your objective.
Since this is remote research, a great icebreaker is to ask where the participant is located and ask some questions about their city. This is a good way to kick off because it helps participants relax and realize that this is going to be more like a friendly conversation than an interview.
Introduce the prototype.
After a little small talk, give an overview of the interview structure and introduce the prototype or problem we’ll be discussing. Here are some tips on how to do this:
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Clarify that you’re testing the prototype and not the participant.
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Explain that there are no right or wrong answers to your questions. You're looking for candid feedback and opinions.
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Encourage them to be totally honest about their feedback, reassuring them that it won’t hurt your feelings as you didn’t design the prototype. Even if you did design the prototype, we recommend saying it wasn’t you.
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Michael Margolis, UX Researcher at Google Ventures recommends calling every interface a prototype during a user testing session. Even if it’s a fully functional production app, telling the user it’s a prototype empowers them to be truly critical and avoid holding back their thoughts.
Your ultimate goal is to understand behavior and motivation. This test is a way for you to gain a better understanding of issues you're probably missing as an insider.
Ask light warm-up questions.
Following the introduction, start with lighter warm-up questions related to the research.
Here are some examples of light warm-up questions:
- "What’s your first impression of the prototype?"
- "Does anything immediately stand out to you?"
- "Tell me what comes to mind when you see this prototype."
Ask more challenging questions.
As the interview progresses, continue to work from your research plan to ask the questions you need to ask.
Avoid asking leading questions, which lead to skewed or biased answers. An example of a leading question would be:
- "Does this prototype give you the impression that the company cares about the environment?"
Stick to asking open-ended questions to keep your participants sharing their unique, unbiased experiences. For example, instead of asking the leading question above, you could ask:
- "What impressions do you have about the company after viewing this prototype?"
Dig deeper into their response by following up with more “why?” questions.
Wrap things up.
Once you have gathered all the insights you need or think that the conversation has reached its limit, you can start closing down the interview. Here's a suggestion for how to do this:
- "Thank you, this was really helpful. I think we’ve got everything we wanted, do you have any questions for us or is there anything else you would like to share?”
This gives the participant a chance to mention anything that wasn't covered by the questions or tasks in the interview.
Review the interview.
When the interview is over, the next step is a review. A short summary will be very helpful when you come back to review the insights at a later date.
You can create clips to export these key moments to share with stakeholders.
Synthesize the data and share your insights.
Once all interviews are completed for a project, you'll want to summarize the important insights to uncover problems and patterns.
It's useful to watch the recordings back with a partner to spot any insights you might've noticed. You can use the transcript to find points of interest in the call.
When you’re drawing conclusions, make sure you’re inviting your stakeholders to participate. You can share recordings with people, even if they don't have an account, using the steps in this guide.
Above all, the best way to learn and improve your remote user research skills is by running lots of sessions and self-reflecting after each one. Make sure you’re always spending a little time evaluating each interview, along with your speaking and questioning style.