Topic 5: User Testing and Community Feedback
What techniques can you employ to test your code and receive feedback on your work? Additionally, how do you keep in touch with your audience throughout the development process and when sharing the final product?Tags: Open Source collaboration
User testing and community feedback play crucial roles when contributing to an open-source project. The purpose of user testing is to allow contributors to verify if their contribution is of quality and satisfies a specific requirement or expectation.
After contributing to a few open-source projects, I noticed that the methods by which I gain feedback differentiate depending on the type of contribution I am making. Specifically, these are the types of contributions referred to:
- Contributing to a code bug
- Contributing or suggestions to improve a current feature
- Contributing or suggesting a new feature
User testing and community feedback method for:
1. Contributing to a code bug
The method I use to user test and gain feedback when contributing to debugging a feature is to run the code on my device or simulator. If the changes can fix the bug, the next step would be to submit the updated code. However, if the changes I made do not debug the issue, I would seek feedback from the open-source project community and ask for support in terms of solving or improving my solution.
User testing and community feedback method for:
2. Contributing or suggestions to improve a current feature
When I am proposing to improve an existing feature within the project, my go-to method of user testing and feedback is through A/B testing.As discussed in Week 5's lecture on "User Testing, Research and Analysis", A/B testing is a method used to compare two versions of a feature or element to determine which one performs better in terms of user engagement and experience (Babich et al., 2019).
In the lecture, I understood that A/B testing is highly beneficial when proposing modifications to an existing feature. It allows users or communities to assess the impact of proposed changes and gather data-driven insights to truly determine if the proposed changes are worth making.
During my placement year in 2022, I got the opportunity to redesign an annotation feature to classify cancer genes for Genomics England. I came up with two potential redesign options and then designed an A/B testing approach involving my proposed designs and the current design of the annotation feature. Through user testing, I was not only able to confirm that redesign positively impacted the overall experience, but also gained more insights on opportunities to further it.
User testing and community feedback method for:
3. Contributing or suggestions to improve a current feature
When contributing an entirely new feature, my preferred approach for user testing and gaining feedback is through Task Scenarios."Task Scenarios" testing entails creating specific tasks or activities for users to perform so that you can evaluate how well your proposed feature performs in real-world usage situations (McCloskey, 2014). As discussed in Week 5's lecture on "User Testing, Research and Analysis", the method of "Task Scenarios" is effective in terms of providing insights into its usability and overall experience. Essentially, by observing users when they navigate through the defined tasks, valuable feedback can be gathered which could help in identifing any usability issues, areas of improvement, and enhancing the user experience.
Conducting "Task Scenarios" tests when proposing a new feature allows you to assess the effectiveness of the feature and if the user can instinctively operate it with ease. This method will give you an idea if the new feature you are proposing meets the intended user experience.
Creating UX Assets to Ensure a User-Centered Development Process
Additionally, I would also like to point out is the importance of keeping your target-users best interest in mind throughout the the development process. This ensures that the code contributions or product in general be of value to the intended users (Cockton, 2019).A method I use to keep in touch with the target users is by creating UX assets with data I've obtained through user testings or community feedbacks. UX assets refers to user profiles, service blueprints, user flows and story boards. These assets serve as data-driven references throughout the development process, providing a clear understanding of the target users and guiding decisions by keeping their needs and behaviors at the forefront.
References
Babich, N. et al. (2019) What is beta testing? full overview & guidelines: Adobe XD ideas, Ideas. Available at: https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/process/user-testing/everything-you-need-to-know-about-beta-testing/ (Accessed: 26 May 2023).
Cockton, G. (2019) Usability evaluation, The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/usability-evaluation (Accessed: 03 June 2023).
McCloskey, M. (2014) Task scenarios for usability testing, Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/task-scenarios-usability-testing/#:~:text=When%20the%20right%20participants%20attempt,communicate%20a%20site%27s%20overall%20usability. (Accessed: 03 June 2023).
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