Studying and questioning users does no good if you tell them the answers
A cognitive walkthrough is one of the most effective methods of usability testing. It is an excellent methodology for gathering qualitative data. We’ve found that 80-90% of usability problems can be found by examining just 5-6 users. First time impressions are everything—that’s why getting an authentic representation of how users behave can make or break a software development project. Everything you’ve been working on leads to one significant moment: user acceptance.
We can help by testing a sample of users and answering the hard questions:
- Are you meeting their expectations?
- Are you meeting their needs?
- How is the usability of the system?
- Is it ready for prime time?
The first step is to observe how users interact with your product for the first time. By examining irritations and nuisances, we’ll make recommendations of how to improve their experience and ease frustrations. A lot of projects fail to recognize the value in this.
During a cognitive walkthrough, we will put your users through a list of scenarios—asking them to think aloud and examine their behavior and reactions to your product. We will video record their screen and face to make a record you can share with your team. We will also make recommendations based on our findings that will improve your website’s usability. It’s important to note that it works best when this is down iteratively—constantly improving the website’s usability.
Good design means less training, reduces the amount of help desk calls, and creates experiences users rave about. It can also make a huge difference in the amount of leads and conversions a website generates. Think of how many sales you maybe losing by having an unusable website.
Before you deploy, talk to us first. After you deploy, talk to us again. We’ll create design artifacts from usability sessions and focus groups to help design a system user’s love.
