I’m running 4 demo sessions of the new usability testing service in the coming months. These are open to all staff to come along and see how the process works, with the first happening on Wednesday 25 May.

(Post edited to update event details and booking links 18 May 2016)

Each session will last just under 3 hours, and attendees will be active participants in the process. This is real usability research, undertaken with a range of service teams interested in improving the user experience of their digital provision.

Each team I’m collaborating with has kindly agreed to open their session up to colleagues, so everyone can see where their provision can be improved, and they’re welcoming participants’ input.

Scheduling is yet to be fully confirmed, but the focus of the sessions will be:

• New staff profile creation & editing experience using EdWeb CMS (with the University Website Programme)
  • Book a place Wednesday 25 May, 10:00 – 12:45 (University staff only, secure log in required)
• The current student experience of IT self help on the Information Services website (with IS Helpline)
  • Book a place – Tuesday 14 June, 10:00 – 12:45 (University staff only, secure log in required)
• The prospective student experience of researching programmes of study using the degree finder (with Communications and Marketing)
• The current student experience of Library book ordering (with the Library and Collections team)

We ran this workshop session format previously to showcase our work in developing the EdWeb CMS, and feedback from attendees was excellent.

…[the session] gave me a few good ideas to use when user testing my own websites, particularly the flowchart for prioritising issues and the instructions for usability test observers… [I] will be trying these out … when testing a website we’re developing… I also enjoyed collaborating with other university staff.

Previous workshop feedback

Read more about the session format in my previous blog post ‘Making usability agile’

Why you should attend

Learn how to integrate regular usability testing into your website and software development activities, and foster support through active team collaboration.

In this session you’ll:

• Find out how the UWP used this technique during EdWeb CMS development
• Get insight into how you could run similar sessions yourself (it’s really not difficult)
• Watch 3 representative users interact with a University service
• Contribute to the usability issue prioritisation process alongside stakeholders and service managers

Why we are doing this

First and foremost, I’m running these sessions to showcase the service and demonstrate the value of regular usability testing and collaborative observation.

Whether you choose to use the service, or just take inspiration to try it for yourself, we:

• Get ourselves and our colleagues closer to our users
• Develop shared experience and user empathy
• Make our websites and services more effective, efficient and enjoyable to use

Overall, excellent… The session was extremely useful and provided valuable insight and guidance on how to run UX sessions that provide measurable results

Previous workshop feedback

If you’ve any questions about these sessions, or the service in general, get in touch.

Neil Allison’s contact details