Ben Wallace of Link Positive presentation to the Content Strategy - Minneapolis Meetup at CoCo Minneapolis on March 20, 2012. Slide #20 offers the summary take-away points on how user testing can inform content.

1. User Testing
and Content Strategy
By Ben Wallace
@BenWallace
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Prepared for
Twin Cities Content Strategy Meetup

2. Agenda
Intro
How I got into Usability
What is UX, Usability and Usability Testing?
How Usability Testing can inform Content Strategy
Case Studies
Usability Resources
Discussion

3. ...that, and the handle
@BenWallace (not) was already taken.
"I don't Twitter," Wallace said at Quicken
Loans Arena. "If you want to talk to me, you
got to come see me. That's why I don't need
Twitter." - Detroit Free Press

4. Intro
*
* Not a licensed usability specialist

5. Many Local UX and Usability Experts
 Eaton Golden
(Emily Eaton, John Golden, Mahtab Rezai, +)
 Evantage (Fred Beecher+)
 Straight Line Theory
 Fredrickson Communications (John Wooden+ )
 Katie Ware (Campbell Mithun)
 Kristi Olson (Deluxe)
 Susan Dray & David Siegel
 Lyle Kantrovich (Vivid Mojo)
 Libby Cecci
 “DeeDee” DeMulling (Oprum Insight)
 Garrick Van Buren
 Carlos Abler
 Peter Barry
 Jennifer Bombach
 Dan Hill (Sensory Logic)
 Corporate (e.g. US Bank, Target, Medtronic)
 U of M Usability Services
 HFI
 Perficient
 …..and many I’m sure I’ve overlooked (sorry)

6. How I got into Usability Testing
 Market Sensing a constant in brand/mktg strategic planning
 Org/Brand Strategy > Audit touchpoints > Interview stakeholders
 Voice of the Customer (VOC)
 at heart of strategy
 then, used for contextual feedback and direction on designs
 Brand Strategy mapped to Stakeholder Profiles and
Experience across Touchpoints
 User Personas; Demographic and Psychographic profiles; Styleboards
 Interviews to identify impressions, position, differentiators,
 Started doing Interactive Design in 1995
 First interactive tools and Web design efforts
 Helped build out internal interactive services
 Evolving Web best practices
 User Task Scenarios

8. How I got into Usability Testing
 Project: Corporate Intranet
 Content Strategy Easy
 Information Architecture (Site Map)
 User Interface (Wireframes)
 Search Strategy
 Business Process Facilitation (e.g. Benefits Enrollment)
 Methods
 Benchmarking
 Site Analytics (including search log analysis)
 Card Sorting
 Wireframe Paper Prototype Testing Info
 Survey
 Sample Results: Lifted by 10%+ (n=11,778)
 “Enrolling online was easy to do”
 “I had all the information I needed to make my enrollment
decisions”

9. How I got into Usability Testing
 Professional Organization Involvement
 UPA- MN
 Events
 Board of Directors
 UPA-International
 Project: UPA Brand Strategy
 UPA Conference
 Influencers
 Lyle Kantrovich
 Steve Krug (Don’t Make Me Think)
 Susan Dray
 Ginny Redish
 Jared Spool

10. How I got into Usability Testing
 Factored into Web site Consulting Projects
 Hired to facilitate usability testing

11. What Is Usability?

12. What is Usability?
 Usability is concerned with product
digital or interface’s ability to support a
users desired task vs. holistic experience
 User Experience (UX)
 CHI: “In summary, we recommend the term
user experience to be scoped to products,
systems, services, and objects that a
person interacts with through a user
interface.”
 “…HCI researchers and practitioners have
become well aware of the limitations of
the traditional usability framework,
which focuses primarily on user
cognition and user performance in
human-technology interactions. In
contrast, UX highlights non-utilitarian
aspects of such interactions, shifting the
focus to user affect, sensation, and the
meaning as well as value of such
interactions in everyday life.
 ISO 9241-11: Guidance on Usability (1998)
Usability: the extent to which a product can
be used by specified users to achieve
specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency
and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

13. What is Usability?
Where brand intent and user intent meet, with minimal
user effort.
 User:
 Task completion
 Brand:
 Objectives (often to support user task)
 Action Targets (conversions)
 Business Processes
 Brand Experience

14. What is Usability Testing?
 Evaluation Subset of Usability/ UX
(Research, Evaluation, Design, Management )
 Defined user validation of intuitive, effective function
 Subjective feedback on interface and ability to complete
 Heuristic Usability Evaluation vs. User Validation
 Not QA testing, performance, stress, security, etc.
“…only the process that employs participants who are representative of the
target population to evaluate the degree to which a product meets specific
usability criteria (Barnum, 2002). Other practitioners use the term more
globally to refer to any technique used to evaluate how easy a product or
system is to use.”- TEST AND DATA SERVICES PTY (LTD)

15. Methods and Tools
 Observation
 Side-by-side
 Remote
 1-way glass
 Facilitated
 Scenarios
 Prompting
 Software Tools
 Screen Capture
 Morae (from TechSmith)
 Silverback
 Eye Tracking

16. Testing Process
 Develop testing plan
 Goals/ objectives
 User profiles and tasks
 Method, scripts, tools, etc.
 Recruit representative participants
 Create test materials (prototypes)
 Brief participants
 Facilitate evaluation
 User questionnaire
 Review findings / implications with team
 Refine test materials for next stage
 Revisit once implemented

17. Sessions
 Typical Formats
 Paper Prototypes/ Wireframes
 High Fidelity Prototypes
 Live Sites/ Software/ Products
 Observation and Facilitated Feedback around a Product/ interface
 Talk out loud
 Share open ended scenario
(need, interest, search terms, where to look)
 Initial Reactions
 General Feel
 Expectations
 Where would you go? Why?
 Anything Missing? Not important? Confusing?
 Walk through task scenarios
 Survey

18. When to do Usability Testing?
 Early and Often (Agile, iterative)
 Various Stages
 Existing site
 IA
 Wireframes
 Design paper
 Design functional
 Live

19. How Can User Testing Inform
Content?

20. How Can User Testing Inform Content?
 Information + Functionality  Persona Insights
 Relevance / Interest/ Appeal  Mindset, emotional triggers, passions,
 Right information, missing information, affiliations, preferences, character
additions, cuts  Context/ Task Insights
 Overall presentation  Steps, thought processes
 Terms  Stories
 Topics  Frame of reference
 Natural language  ~ Empathy
 Navigation Labeling (UI)  Competitive Comparison
 Keywords (SEO)  Web experience
 Grouping / Logic/ Navigation/  Key differentiators
Sorts  Validate as True to Brand
 Information Architecture (IA) - macro view Expectations/ Reality
and Web Site Maps  Confirmation of brand expectations
 Logical groupings and nesting (plus lateral  Reinforces aspects of product/svc. UX
links, nav/sort options)
 Emphasis and Design
 Priority, order, number
 Format (size, color) ~Design (UI)
 Accessibility*

21. Cases

22. Prototype Live Site

23. Prototype Live Site

24. Other User Insight Methods

25. Other User Insight Sources…
 Web
 Site Analytics
 Search Analytics
 Social Sensing
 Eye Tracking/ Heat Maps (F pattern)
 A/B and Multivariate Testing
 Sales/ CSR/ Call Centers/ Channel Partners
 Interviews
 Surveys
 Observation/ Ethnographic Research
 Camera Studies

26. Usability Resources
(a sampling)

27. Resources – People / Sites/ Books
 Jacob Nielsen
 www.UseIt.com + Alertbox
 Jared Spool
 www.uie.com
 Steve Krug
 www.sensible.com
 Ginny Redish
 www.redish.net
 Susan Weinschenk
 www.whatmakesthemclick.net
 www.boxesandarrows.com
 www.Uxmatters.com

28. Usability Resources – Groups and Orgs
 UX Meetups
 UPA-MN
 UPA Inernational
 HFES
 IXDA
 SIG-CHI (ACM)
 STC

29. Discussion
 Others’ experiences with usability testing?

30. Thank You!
Ben Wallace, President - Brand & Marketing Strategist
Link Positive, Inc. www.LinkPositive.com
612.747.3457 (mobile/txt)
http://www.linkedin.com/in/linkpositive
@BenWallace