UIEtips Article: 5-Second Tests — Measuring Your Site’s Content Pages
UIEtips 9/11/07: 5-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site’s Content Pages
It’s hard enough creating usable designs when there is ample time and plenty of resources, but what do you do when that’s just not an option for your design team? One of the most common reasons designs fail users is because the design team didn’t have the time or resources to focus on user research or conduct usability testing. That’s why one of our main goals at User Interface Engineering is to disseminate some of the quick-and-dirty techniques available to designers and usability professionals.
One of our most valuable techniques is the 5-Second Test. This technique turns out to be a quick, flexible testing method that gives teams fascinating insights about the design. In this week’s issue of our email newsletter, UIEtips, we re-printed an excellent article that describes the 5-Second Test technique and discusses its advantages and disadvantages for measuring the effectiveness of web site content pages. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Christine Perfetti and I also recently discussed the topic in our Usability Tools Podcast Series. If you would like to learn more about the techniques, I highly suggest you give it a listen.
Also, if you’re struggling to come up with the time or resources to conduct user research, you’ll really want to take advantage of the latest live presentation in UIE’s Virtual Seminar Series. On September 27th, my good friend, Larry Constantine, will present the online seminar, Don’t Panic: Design and Usability Under Impossible Pressure, sharing a wide range of field-proven techniques for conquering design and usability problems while in crunch mode. You really shouldn’t miss it.