A talk from Akademy 2018, presenting how the KDE Community can apply Guerilla Usability Testing to improve the user experience of our products

1. thomas.pfeiffer@kde.org
@colomar@fosstodon.org
Thomas Pfeiffer
Guerilla Usability Testing
How low-cost, low-effort user testing can improve
KDE's products
Akademy 2018

2. What is Guerilla Usability Testing?
Guerrilla testing is a
fast and low-cost way
to gain sufficient
insights to make
informed decisions.1

3. What is Guerilla Testing Good for?
●
Identifying clear usability issues
●
Testing assumptions with real users
●
Getting quick feedback when in doubt
●
Best for short tasks needing
no prior knowledge or
experience

4. Whar is Guerrila Testing Not Good for?
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Komplex UIs or tasks
●
Measuring things
●
Extrapolating distribution of attitudes to the
target audience as a whole
(e.g. “60% of users prefer that variant”)

5. Who can Do it?
●
Anyone who is at least somewhat
– Outgoing and friendly
– Observant
– Patient

6. Who to Test With?
●
Anyone matching the target audience
●
Current users of the tested software if
experience is needed
●
For example
– People met at a pub or café
– Coworkers, fellow students, etc.
– Friends and family (be sure not to always test the
same people!)

7. What do we Need?
●
A UI/UX design (anything from rough
sketches on paper to a coded UI)
●
A place with people matching the target
audience
●
Time
●
Some money for incentives (e.g. a beer per
tester) if testing with strangers

8. What to do? (1)
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Define your research question
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Define test tasks and/or questions
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Bring device or piece of paper with UI on it
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Ask people if they’d like to try it out for a few
minutes (in exchange for e.g. a beer)
●
Introduce what the UI is about (only as much
as absolutely necessary)

9. What to do? (2)
●
Explain test procedure, ask to think aloud
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If testing a full application
– Give a few minutes to familiarize with the
product
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Describe the task
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Watch users perform the task
– Take notes
– If possible, record voice, screen + interactions

10. Let’s Get Testing!
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When in doubt, do a guerilla test!
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Split the work among the team (e.g. five
members do one test each)
●
If you have questions, talk to me or send me
an email ( thomas.pfeiffer@kde.org )

11. Sources / further reading
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[1] adapted from https://uxmag.com/articles/getting-guerrilla-with-it
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All images CC0 from https://pixabay.com/
Further reading:
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http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-art-of-guerrilla-usability-testing/
●
https://medium.springboard.com/a-guide-to-the-art-of-guerrilla-ux-tes
ting-69a1411d34fb