Don’t Make Me Think: The Discount Usability Testing Workshop

Written by David Charney
Posted: October 4, 2008 (1 year, 5 months ago) | 0 comments

Hey hey! CD2 just got an email from Steve Krug, the brilliance behind the book Don’t Make Me Think. Steve and Lou Rosenfeld have an upcoming usability workshop here in Chicago (October 17) and Washington, DC (November 12).

CD2 members can get a $150 dollar discount by registering at Steve’s site (sensible.com) using the discount code “cd2″.

From Steve’s site Advanced Common Sense:

In this day-long session, I’ll teach you how to do your own low-cost/no-cost testing that’s simple enough to make it a routine part of your design process.

The day will include

•  A complete explanation of how I recommend doing testing (Hint: very simple, very fast, and very cheap)
• Two live usability tests on attendees’ sites, so you can see the whole process in detail
• A chance to practice conducting a test on your own site
• Advice on how to interpret your findings and decide what changes to make
• Plenty of time to answer your questions about testing or any other aspect of usability

Who should attend?
The short answer is “anyone involved in publishing a Web site.” Graphic designers, programmers, writers, editors, project managers, sole proprietors, and VPs can all benefit from this session.

Whether you already do testing and want to know more, or have never done testing and want to start, or even if you don’t ever intend to do your own testing but are responsible for hiring, managing, or paying other people to do it, this session will prove valuable.

Some of the topics covered

• What I mean by “discount” user testing, and why it always works
• How to get buy-in: Ways to deal with bosses, stakeholders, and check-signers
• What kind of people–and how many–to test (My motto: Recruit loosely, and grade on a curve)
• What to test, and when to test it
• How to record tests and use the recordings to your advantage
• The art of specifying test tasks
• How to facilitate–when to listen and when to probe
• Why I don’t use exit and entrance questions
• How to decide what to fix
• No more big honkin’ reports: Why you should avoid writing test reports, and what to do instead
• Remote testing methods and tools
• …and much more.