User Research tips: The purpose of user testing is God horse?

Article Description: discover the emotional part of the user inconsistency tips.

As early as the 1830s, American psychologist Richard Lapiere realized that a person's attitude and behavior are not always firmly linked. Lapiere concludes that if you want to predict how a person will behave in the face of a particular situation or particular person, the verbal answer to a hypothetical scenario (i.e. the user's attitude) is far from enough.

It is true that human beings always have a kind of inertia, even if have the best intention, also say a set of do. Users are also nothing more than mortal nature, then, how quickly we find that the user in the test is true or FALSE, the following is my little experience as a small intern, write to share with the various cents son.

Do users really "pay"?

What is the purpose of user testing is God horse?

Usually we just stay in the understanding of the product is easy to use, the use of the level, but, please do not forget that there is a deeper level, that is the user to the product or not. The former is the usability test we usually do, which we call the value test.

Most testers end up simply asking the user to "want to buy" a user test. Actually, you know what? User's inertia answer "perhaps" or "will", just the user in your face, in your gorgeous said "no" just.

So, how to ask the tester to get the user's true "mind"? Here, former ebay vice President Marty Cagan has given us a simple way to judge: we can throw a question, "Are you willing to recommend the product to a co-worker (or anyone else you care about)", and then we let the user grade the recommended value, and 0 are highly reluctant to recommend it, 10 delegates are quite willing to recommend. The answer is very simple, only the user hit 9-10 points is the true love, said users will really "pay" the use of our products, the user hit 5-7 points just out of courtesy of you, said to our products are not cold at all.

Revelation-Creating a user favorite product and author Marty Cagan

In general, we are figuring out "will users buy products?" If not, what is the reason? "You cannot terminate a user test before. When the work of the user researcher comes to an end, the product manager takes the follow-up discussion and tries to find the answer to the question. When conducting value tests, we must keep a close eye on some of the details and they are often the key to success. When investigating "what to do to persuade them to buy the product," we may find that these people are not our target customers, there are people who need our products more, or find that the product solves the problem is not the user's concern, improve the product, let it really solve the user's problem, the product will be more valuable. Sometimes the solution is wrong, sometimes the profit model is wrong, as long as more attention, a little adjustment, the result will be much better.

Memories are "deceptive."

From the perspective of cognitive psychology, our memories are not photographic, but are constantly being constructed, and as information continues to enter, it is possible to be quietly modified. As a result, the views or wishes expressed by a particular user may not be the same as those we remember. At this point, a complete record can help us avoid this problem.

We need to have a clear understanding of the user's words and deeds. Perhaps the user himself does not know what to want, this is a lot of users of the general mentality. Never accuse the user of vexatious, just like don't accuse girls of fickle. If you care enough to keep her in mind, you should know what she likes, what she wants, and what she will buy. Her every time browsing, every click, each purchase is actually telling you what she likes, what they want, these are the opportunities that users give us, please do not waste.

The attitude of the user will change with time, sometimes the pressure of different situations may be different from that of a user. So when will measurement attitude be successful in predicting behavior?

We'd better be measuring attitude and behavior at the same time. Psychologists have studied and dug up some of the factors that lead to a consistent attitude and behavior:
1. The significance of attitude if you are very clear about someone or something, then it is significant and important and easy to extract from memory. The clearer the attitude, the more it can predict individual behavior.
2. The stress of the situation is so stressful in a particular situation that it makes people's inner thoughts have no effect whatsoever on the behavior.

Users often inconsistency from the fact that they are not aware of their behavior in many cases. As a well-known example, when Sony introduced Boom Box concept, it brought together potential users to form a focus group to discuss whether the new product should be black or yellow. At this point, each test user believes that consumers should be more inclined to yellow. After the meeting, organizers told them to take away a Boom Box for free before leaving, and the result was that everyone was taking black! Previous assessments of attitudes have completely overturned real behavior.

Figure II: Black Boom Box

Welcome to think aloud.

The user is thinking aloud when testing, that is, let the user focus on how to interact with the product stream of consciousness. This is an effective way to obtain user data feedback using the usability testing process. If the atmosphere of the test is more equal, natural, harmonious, and the user is particularly willing to express, then the user will be in the task of operation, while expressing what they want to do, how to do, behind the reasons. At this time, not only is the operation behavior, the user expresses the thought and the reason as well as in the language reveals the doubt, the disappointment, the dissatisfaction, the surprise, hesitates and so on emotion also needs our attention.

The sound thinking was originally proposed by Lewis at IBM and was further amended by Ericsson and Simon. This approach requires the user to dictate what they feel when they are done in a series of tasks set by the tester to help us observe and get first-hand feedback. We are required throughout the testing process, objectively and comprehensively record the user said every word, can not interrupt the user's action and expression. The purpose of this method is to identify "who" in the completion of specific tasks, what the "problem", highlighting specific users and specific issues.

The little face is betraying you.

In the 2009 American drama "Lie to ME" inside the actor Lightman said, "Ordinary people in the conversation every 10 minutes will spread three times lie." This is the theme of the micro-expression of the beauty of the drama caused by the other side of the ocean lie to me door.

Micro-expression, is a psychological term. People express their feelings to each other by making some expressions, and it usually lasts less than one-fifth seconds, and if it's more than a second it's a lie. The micro-expression flashed past, usually only 10% of people noticed, even the expression of the people and observers are not aware of.

"Micro-expression" reflects the user's real feelings and motives more than the conscious expression. While the testers ignore the "micro expression", our brains are still affected and change the understanding of the user's expression. So if the user naturally behaves "happy" and does not contain a "micro expression", it can be judged to be genuinely happy. But if there is a "sneer" in which the "micro expression" flashes, even if you are not deliberately aware, you will be more inclined to think that the "happy" face is "cunning" or "untrustworthy."

Figure three: True smile, in the eyes of the upturned

It should be explained that the micro-expression is unconscious, not by choice, so it is beyond the control of the user and is related to the nationality of wood. It can discover clues buried deep in human face, body and voice, and then show the user's sincerity to the world.

Here are some interesting user behaviors that, when the user has the following behavior, indicate that his words are questionable and require our own judgment or further mining of trusted information:
1. The blunt repetition of the problem is typically a lie, such as "Have you ever used a micro business card?" Yes, I've worked on it a few times before.
2. A slight tilt of the mouth or a unilateral shrug or subconscious threw or a stroke of their hands or chuckle two times, is a manifestation of self comfort. Indicates that the user has no confidence in what has just been said.
3. If the user is dismissive of our questions, usually these questions will be a positive voice in the user's heart.
4. Hand placed in the vicinity of the eyebrow to show users ashamed to answer this question, we need to quickly change the way clever guidance.
5. The real surprise expression is fleeting, more than a second is pretended.
6. When the user wants to conceal, the sponge under the nose will itch, especially for male users, be careful.
7. When the user is stated, the eyeball will look to the left and the bottom, which is the memory of the brain, is the truth, and lies do not need to recall the process.
8. When users describe a series of testing processes, the ability to be fluent and accurate in flashbacks is one of the criteria for determining whether they are lying, as lies are often fabricated in chronological order.
9. When a user lies, it is not as usual to avoid the other person's eyes, but more need eye contact to determine whether we believe what he said. So, when you need to, stare at the user.
10. People are afraid of the physiological escape response: Blood from the limbs back to the leg (ready to escape), with the hands of the body surface temperature drop. Therefore, we can invite users to come to and leave with their handshake, as the user has said the lie to quickly escape the reference.

To sum up

This article is only a few of the techniques found in the user observation, in fact, there are many theoretical support, such as emotional theory, neural marketing and eye tracking, micro-expression training tools (Micro Expression training Tool, Mett), the use of instantaneous interaction research, Facial Behavior Code Systems (Facial Action Coding System, FACS), etc. However, no matter which method or tool, there is no absolute perfection. When we really face the user, we should combine a variety of research methods, and based on the research objectives and data collation analysis tools and budget and research time to make a reasonable choice.