Tuesday 17 November 2009

User testing you don't know about

It's very easy to put off user testing. When your budget's tight and your schedule's behind it's so easy to let it slide. And before you know it you've got a product out of the door that hasn't seen a user.

I realised something for the first time today: one way or another you do user testing. You either test your site before launch... or you test it after launch.

If you take time to have people try your site then you've got a chance to improve it, to learn some lessons.

But if you don't test, then your guinea pigs are your first customers. And there is not iterative cycle; there is no improvement. Just a missed opportunity.

So, like it or not, you do user testing. The question is... will you learn from it?