USER TESTING

SITES

Conducting Your First User Test
Web Review article outlining a five-step approach to getting started with user testing.

Scheduling Hard-to-Find Users
Tips from User Interface Engineering on pinning down those elusive users.

User Test Your Web Site
Web Review article by Keith Instone offers tips for user testing.

User Testing: How to find out what users want
This Anchor guide to user testing outlines how to get started and includes a list of recommended books.

ARTICLES

Becoming a Usability Professional
Advice from Jakob Nielsen on what it takes to become a usability professional: knowledge related to user testing, intelligence, and 10 years' experience. (7/22/2002 at UseIt)

Field Studies Done Right: Fast and Observational
Some advice on user testing: it doesn't take a PhD to conduct a user test; every member of a design team should observe users using the product. (1/20/2002 at UseIt)

Group Dynamics
Conventional wisdom says professional researchers should conduct focus groups. Some startups following the conventional wisdom never regret it; others do better conducting groups on their own. (10/25/1999 at The Industry Standard)

Measuring User Experience
How to measure the usability of your website: covering usability testing, focus groups, contextual research, site and online evaluations, measurement tools, and rapid prototyping. (1/10/2001 at Web Techniques)

Nielsen on Usability: Testing Tips and Notes on Task Time
A discussion of "time on task" - how long it takes a user to complete a task online - and its importance. (1/17/2001 at Internet World)

Statistically Analyzing Success Rates in Web Usability Testing: The Cochran's Q Test
Information on using the Cochran's Q Test to statistically analyze users' success rates in performing tasks. (3/3/2001 at WebWord.com)

Web Site Usability Tests Arrive
Startups that conduct usability tests without interviewing users - their software simulates a user's path through a site, measuring various site characteristics - are competing with companies that use actual human opinions to judge sites. (2/7/2000 at ZDNet)

A Web-Ster's Guide to Cross-Platform Testing
Testing your site with varying browsers on varying platforms; concentrates on OS emulation strategies and getting multiple browser installations to work. (9/10/1999 at A List Apart)

Why You Need to Test Your Web Site With Real Users
Why user testing is important, and how to set up a simple user test of a website. (1/11/2001 at WebReference.com)

Click on an icon to show only those resources.

What is good hypertext writing?
Thoughts and impressions on what makes good writing on the web. Includes a list of "dangerous words" such as click, cool, and surf.

Submit a URL to the index. You can also submit by email.