Summary
It is more important than ever to understand your audience to succeed but it takes rigor to gain valuable insights. Learn how framing usability test scenarios with distractions and interruptions lead to a deeper line of questioning and exponentially increases the accuracy of your user research. Join Marc Majers & Tony Turner, the user experience team from the book Make Your Customers Dance, to discuss techniques that will make a big impact on your product's competitiveness.
Key Insights
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Designing for unexpected user paths is as crucial as planning for ideal scenarios.
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Incorporating realistic interruptions into usability testing can lead to richer, more accurate findings.
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Real-life distractions, like phone calls or connectivity issues, inform user behavior and experience.
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Increasing participant interaction during tests can enhance engagement and discovery output.
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Understanding user mental models is improved when interruptions are introduced during research.
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Participants can provide more candid feedback when disruptions reflect real-life situations.
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It's important to maintain ethics by informing participants about the non-typical nature of the study.
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Using the story curve allows researchers to effectively time interruptions.
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The Goldilocks principle applies to the fidelity of prototypes when introducing interruptions.
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Observation of real contexts is essential to identify appropriate interruptions.
Notable Quotes
"We typically design for the perfect path. Do you design and plan and test for the unexpected path?"
"When you think about real life, there’s various things that happen when you’re using any kind of tool or technology."
"Introducing interruptions increases participant interaction and engagement."
"It’s really helpful to do research and get that increased discovery output."
"You’re going to get a more realistic understanding of the findings that come out of the research."
"If you begin to add disruptions, you'll see that there's a big difference between outcomes."
"You want to let them know that it’s a bit non-typical."
"You don’t want to use this method all the time, but rather supplementally when it's effective."
"When you have a more realistic situation, you learn more about how people handle challenges."
"The fidelity of the prototype influences the effectiveness of the disruptions."
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