Sometimes questions are more important than answers

What is Guerrilla Usability Testing? (Short Answer)

Guerrilla usability testing is a quick and inexpensive way of testing a prototype or website with real users. Instead of recruiting a specific targeted audience to take part in sessions, participants are approached in public places and asked to take part in research. These sessions normally last for only 10-15 minutes with a small incentive of a coffee or cake offered.

Guerrilla user testing in a cafe

Our approach to usability testing

Tailored User Tests

Work closely with our team to design your test.

Natural User Journeys

We focus on natural user behaviour & journeys.

Competitor Evaluation

See how users react to your site vs. competitors.

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UX insight into each of your core platforms.

What is Guerrilla Usability Testing? – Long Answer

Guerrilla usability testing is an agile way of testing a prototype or website to get high-level feedback or identify potential UX issues, at various stages in the project life cycle. As there is no formal recruitment or need for expensive research facilities, this method is quick and easy to set up and can be conducted anywhere (this could be a coffee shop, library, park, etc). You would normally test between 6 -12 users, but this will vary depending on what and where you are testing. Just as you would in any lab-based usability test you should make the user aware of who you are and the purpose of the test. If you are going to record the sessions, you will also need to get consent for this.

Busy cafe

Advantages of Guerrilla Usability Testing

  • Quick turn around
  • Inexpensive compared to formal testing
  • Identify any UX barriers early in the process
  • This iterative testing works well in the agile project approach

Disadvantages of Guerrilla Usability Testing

  • You may not get the right target audience
  • Sessions are short so you will lose some of the insights that you would get from formal user testing
  • Might not be appropriate for all types of websites or apps

Conclusion

If you are looking to get some feedback on your prototype/website, then guerrilla usability tests is a low-cost and quick way of doing it. This method will also allow you to conduct multiple usability tests during the course of a project to gain insights into where the barriers could be. However, if you do choose this method of testing you may not get the right target audience and with the sessions being much shorter than formal usability testing you may not get all of the insights you were hoping for.

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More UX Methods Questions

Usability testing is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users. Users are asked to complete tasks, typically while they are being observed by a researcher, to see where they encounter problems and experience confusion. If more people encounter similar problems, recommendations will be made to overcome these usability issues.

User-centred design is a process or set of tools used to design a service which focuses on what users need at the very beginning and continues throughout development until launch. Typically services are designed from a technical and business perspective, with consideration for users added in later. Instead, User-centred design ensures the service focuses on what users need before balancing this with the technical and business requirements.

Wireframing is a way to design a website service at the structural level. A wireframe is commonly used to lay out content and functionality on a page which takes into account user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure of a page before visual design and content is added.

Website prototypes are interactive demos of a website. These are often used to gather feedback from project stakeholders early in the project lifecycle, before the project goes into final development

User requirements capture is a process used to understand what typical users will need from a service which is about to be designed. Users are observed using similar services and interviewed about the ways they go about planning and completing their goals. This information is used to identify a list of content, features and functionality the new service must have in order to satisfy the needs of its users.

Customer profiling is a way to create a portrait of your customers to help you make design decisions concerning your service. Your customers are broken down into groups of customers sharing similar goals and characteristics and each group is given a representative with a photo, a name, and a description.

Card sorting is a technique that involves asking users to organise information into logical groups. Users are given a series of labelled cards and asked to organise and sort them into groups that they think are appropriate. Card sorting helps you to design an information architecture, workflow, menu structure or website navigation paths.

A user journey is a path a user may take to reach their goal when using a particular website. User journeys are used in designing websites to identify the different ways to enable the user to achieve their goal as quickly and easily as possible.

Focus groups are a research method used to gather feedback and opinions from customers. Each person in the group is encouraged to participate in a discussion which is pre-planned by a researcher and is guided by a facilitator. Focus groups are typically used to gauge opinion and gather information from users about products, services, and features before they have been developed.

Remote usability testing is a way to test how easy to use a website is with users who are in a different geographical location. Traditional usability testing brings users and researchers together in one place to conduct the test, whereas remote usability testing allows the researcher and user to be in different locations while the test is completed.

An expert review is where a usability expert uses his/her knowledge and experience of testing websites with users to walk through a website in the shoes of a typical user. The expert will spot problems and recommend changes to improve usability when budgets and timescales don’t allow for user research.

Service design makes a service easier to use, more useful and more desirable for the customers who need to use it: the service user. Whether creating an entirely new service or improving an existing one, service design focuses on what customers really need at each stage of their interaction with an organisation.

Ethnography is a study through direct observation of users in their natural environment rather than in a lab. The objective of this type of research is to gain insights into how users interact with things in their natural environment.

Tree testing is a way of evaluating a proposed site structure by asking users to find items based on the sites organisation and terminology. This online test only displays the navigation links and removes any additional clutter.

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