Completing usability testing in a short amount of time is a challenge that consultancies and development teams often face. In the first part of a two-part series, Paul Nuschke describes how to cut time out of the preparation leading up to a study. Part two will discuss how to run the study and analyze the findings.
Discovery, Research, and Testing
Alexa Andrzejewski shares her quick yet powerful way for translating static screen designs (from wireframes to visual comps) into interactive prototypes using Flash. Only fairly basic ActionScript knowledge required.
Quick and Easy Flash Prototypes
Bring Your Wireframes to Life
Clients don’t know a thing about their users, and designers think that if they like it, everyone will. Sound familiar? Daniel Lafreniere’s 30-minute “extreme user research” plan comes to the rescue for those of us facing this exact situation. With this practical method, you can generate loads of useful data that will have a real impact on design, thus making the website more effective and profitable.
Extreme User Research
Indi Young talks about the power of the mental model and how it can grow over time and help your organization avoid strategic blindspots. The story includes an excerpt of her new book, and B&A readers are elegible for a discount.
What Is Your Mental Model?
An Interview With Indi Young
Click streams have made room for bounce rates, search analytics, and much more. Inspire stakeholders to act by telling stories with key metrics and better supporting the narrative with data.
In Appreciation of Measures That Tell Stories
In the quest to gather more data on user behavior, some researchers and designers look to server log files for usability analysis. While the logs do provide a great deal of information, Karl Groves demonstrates why they are are inappropriate for gathering usability data.
The Limitations of Server Log Files for Usability Analysis
Creating clickable PDF prototypes for new designs is a valuable tool that is often overlooked and underutilized. Kyle Pero Soucy demonstrates how we can replicate most interactive design elements without investing a lot of time and effort.
PDF Prototypes: Mistakenly Disregarded and Underutilized
Many designers use MS PowerPoint to conceptualize wireframes and get buy-in on project direction. Maureen Kelly shows us how to bring those same artifacts to life as an interactive prototype that allows you to validate the design at many levels.
Interactive Prototypes with PowerPoint
Design games offer an alternative to traditional methods for brainstorming, collecting requirements, building team communication, modeling, and prototyping. Jess McMullin shows us how game principles and examples can complement existing methods.
Using Design Games
The design of complex information systems often calls for early validation of the proposed classification schemes. Iain Barker offers an evaluation method that may help.