At CodeFreeze this year, I went to the User Experience (UX).  They went through things that I have picked up from our UX team but it ended up providing valuable reminders.

One such idea is that on our team we can do user experience testing during requirements, prototype and final stages of development.  Persona’s are necessary, of course, during all stages of development. It is key to understand your customer and how they end up using the system.

Here are a list of things to think about and general tips when going to a customer site to do user testing:

• Look at the users cube, cheat sheets, etc.
• Users will often say and do things differently
• Record their interactions with others
• How often do they use the software?  all day? occasionally?
• Who conducts the test?  Business as well as ux team members.  Business / Developers can also be great observers.

Cognitive Walkthrough

• Take a story and go through it as if you were this person.
• Getting context around what the person is, what they are doing, etc.
• Quote: “Take a user to the edge of the cliff and then watch them step off.  Let the user struggle a bit and then come back and ask questions later.”
• Question you can ask when the user is struggling: Do you see anything else that would help you?