Finishing up the course.

To finish up, here are some notes I distilled down from the articles I read about usability testing and the top most desired skills across industries in the User Experience space.

Usability testing steps:

1: Write a test objective for the research - such as "are descriptions too long?"

- Multiple different tests with their own individual research objectives will help with broader systems

2: Write usability scenarios, like "go from the homepage to find and check a certain item"

- Make sure the task is in fitting with the specific research goal of your set objective

3: Decide the method; field or lab, moderated or unmoderated, remote or in-person

- Pick out the tools for the testing type and decide the type of test necessary for the test content

4: Test plan, with scope, purpose, schedule, location, session description, participant info, scenarios, desired metrics and testing roles

- Put a draft together first and solidify the plan on feedback and updates

5: Recruit testers, around 5 for qualitative, 20~30+ for quantitative data, methods include:

- Hallway testing - get people to speak their thoughts out loud during the test and take notes

- Existing users for services already live, usually A/B testing

- Recruit freelance testers with online ads

- Firms and agencies - very expensive, for high-profit driven services only

6: Conduct the usability session

- Usually 3 people, interviewer, tester and observer - heat maps and screen sharing helps observers

7: Write up a testing report, rank issues found in the results

- Turn qualitative data into visual reports, create spreadsheets for quantitative data

And finally, the top requested skills in the UX space, hard skills (those specific to UX) and soft skills (transferable cross-industry) Cited directly from a table provided in the course on Futurelearn:

Top hard skills

1. UX design

2. User research

3. UI design

4. Information architecture

5. Design software proficiency

6. Data analytics

7. Coding

Top soft skills

1. Collaboration/teamwork

2. Communication

3. Empathy

4. Emotional intelligence

5. Presentation/public speaking skills

6. Leadership

7. Business operations