Three types of users that can mess with your user tests
And what you can do about each one.
If you’re a UX designer, or anyone who works in the consumer space, you know that users can affect the future plans, improvements, and features in your experience.
To mitigate this, many of us turn to user testing to make our case. But as with any endeavor, there are those who seek to undercut you at every turn, and you need to be prepared.
Here are the three problematic testers you could encounter in your work, and how you can settle the score with each.
- The Winner
This person wants to win your usability test. Regardless of your test script or your explicit instructions, all this person hears is, “Other people are doing this test too. If I want to be the best, I have to be the fastest.” This can skew your task analysis in any number of ways. Chief among them is that this tester’s primary goal is to beat the clock; not to see how user friendly your experience is. This mindset leads to gratuitous errors that could be avoided.
To combat this, encourage the individual to attempt a task at warp speed. In other words, give them permission to ignore your protocol and do what they think is best to achieve their ideal solution. If and when this inevitably fails, ask them…
