How many of you have considered if it’s possible to design a digital product that gives a positive customer experience? We’re here to inform you that there most definitely is! Conducting prototype usability testing on your Figma prototypes may reveal all of the flaws in your concepts before you develop them.Prototype usability testing using may appear hard, but it may help you avoid some severe website issues when done correctly. And besides, it’s better to give up early on in the prototype usability testing process than to rectify mistakes later on, right?
Why test Figma prototypes?
What if we told you that you might avoid 50% of your future UX research problems by first constructing a user-friendly product before the development process ever started? That is precisely what prototype usability testing enables you to accomplish. Rather than addressing defects in an existing design, you may prevent them.
Figma prototype usability testing helps you get qualitative and quantitative input from your consumers early on, understand what succeeds and what’s not, and avoid making poor design decisions.
What is the importance of prototype usability testing?
Excellent usability and customer experience do not occur by chance (though it’d be nice if they did!). Usability testing, user acceptance test, and user requirements must be integrated into the layout process from the beginning to produce a product with excellent UX research. Once your webpage or app has already been coded and prepared to begin, the very last point you need to do is fumble through some last-minute usability test.
Before creating your final solution, prototyping allows you to test performance, design, UX design process, marketing, and corporate strategy. As per web usability, changing a programmed feature is up to 100 times more costly than changing a prototype.
When should you conduct prototype usability testing?
There is no one optimal moment to do usability tests: some recommend starting with paper prototypes (for a helpful guide on evaluating with paper-pen prototypes), while others advocate for elevated prototypes with interactivity, graphics, and test-on-device features.
Running numerous rounds of testing as you go through prototype credentialing is also viable and sometimes desired. Usability testing in the design stage ensures that testers focus on the essential nuts and bolts of information system and navigation processes, which you can then iterate up to a high-quality prototype and test again.
However, the focus of this post will be on usability testing using high fidelity prototypes that allow you to see people try out complicated interactions and activities, test remedies to problems you discovered previously, and iron away any last-minute bugs.
What are the advantages of putting your prototypes to the test?
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It saves you money
Solving usability issues on an existing website typically costs several times higher than doing the same thing with the Figma prototype. Not even to mention the time and business you’ll lose due to your poor UX design process decisions.
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It provides a variety of feedback
You analyze your designs by testing user flows, discovering flaws, and gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback. The best aspect is that you can be confident that your studies will be unbiased and objective if you choose the correct subjects.
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It either proves or disproves your suspicions
Figma prototype usability testing will address all of your queries in advance, ensuring a smooth launch of your innovative website or app.
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You discover new concepts
This volume of customer input will help you enhance your existing design and reveal a plethora of future development possibilities. Getting in touch with users might occasionally disclose the information we didn’t realize we needed and perhaps inspire future improvements.
When and with whom should your Figma prototypes be tested?
The most effective method is to do numerous rounds of testing throughout the process. Of course, the last phase of usability testing should be done with a fully functional interactive prototype so that you can follow the user flow and watch how they complete various activities. As you progress through the design process, we propose doing some preference testing. Allow users to alleviate their concerns by stating which design option they prefer.
You usually don’t need more than 5 to get meaningful results in terms of participants. However, depending on your research aims and your techniques, this figure might be drastically different. Quantitative studies often demand a more significant number of testers since precise statistics are required.
Remember that those individuals should reflect your intended audience, so bide your time defining that user persona.
How do you use TryMyUI to evaluate your Figma prototypes?
Even if it sounds intimidating, testing your Figma prototypes is simple with the correct equipment. You could set up a prototype usability testing using TryMyUI in a few clicks, and here’s how:
- Create a TryMyUI account or sign in to your existing one.
- Set up your tests with demographic parameters and sample size.
- Login into Figma and go to the prototype design you wish to test.
- In the headers, select the ‘Present’ button.
- In the top right corner, choose ‘Share prototype’ and copy the URL.
- You can paste the URL into the link field of the usability test you are creating. TryMyUI will handle the rest – your design will display for testers when they opt in to conduct a usability test for you.
- Make tasks for testers to complete, as well as a detailed scenario.
- Create a questionnaire form with some post-study inquiries for users to complete.
- Launch the test and wait for your results!
That’s all there is to it; you’re ready to go! Do your research, assess the findings, and proceed to the next stage of developing your user-friendly digital product.
Tips & strategies for making the most of your Figma prototypes
Use genuine content
The reality is that material directly impacts a user’s decision-making procedure. That is why it is critical to use accurate labeling and photographs. Avoid labels and sentences that say “Lorem Ipsum” and specific irrelevant images.
Define the parameters of your prototype usability testing
Setting a specific aim will assist you in assessing discoveries afterwards. Please be specific.
Try “We want to know if users can log in to the app using my prototype” instead of “We want to evaluate our Figma prototype.”
Make excellent inquiries
Writing practical questions is essential for collecting high-quality feedback during prototype usability testing. Your queries should be objective and not force the tester to respond in a specific way. An excellent post from the NN Group discusses several frequent prejudices. It will assist you in learning how to select appropriate words.
Conduct prototype usability testing in various settings
Your product is most likely designed to work across numerous platforms. Test your responsive layouts, making sure they perform flawlessly on a desktop, mobile device, or tablet.
Don’t immediately alter the prototype usability testing tasks
Instead of modifying the job, prepare some follow-up queries if a user gets lost or stopped on the wrong page. Determine the source of their perplexity, why they chose to navigate there, and what they expected to find.
Carefully plan prototype usability testing
Consider the timing. In a 30-60 minute period, anywhere from 5 to 10 specified activities are expected. Before evaluating stardust poured on top, you must test the product’s primary functions – login processes, conversion funnels, and the like.
It’s also essential to think about how you phrase your assignments or inquiries if you want to acquire valuable answers. Choose wisely between direct and scenario activities and closed or open-ended activities: closed-ended tasks can only have one successful conclusion, but open-ended tasks can have several outcomes and yet be considered successful.
Prototype usability testing & high-fidelity prototypes: Common mistakes
Mid-test intervention
It’s a familiar scenario: a test participant has a problem and has difficulty completing a task. The temptation for the development company is to interrupt or halt the test. Observing people struggle with your prototype, on the other hand, may aid in the resolution of in-built issues. You will obtain more exciting data by asking customers why they battled or what they aimed to achieve rather than raising their hands during the exam.
Taking on bugs on the fly
It’s never a good idea to fix bugs without first analyzing all the evidence: behavior based on partial assumptions glides in the face of excellent usability testing practices. A better solution would be to use the prototype usability testing phase to note and analyze as many issues as possible without trying to interfere; you’ll be in a stronger position to begin coding after that.
Conclusion
There is no silver bullet for launching bug-free software, apps, or websites. However, following these recommended practices when testing interactive prototypes will help you avoid coding reworks and ensure that your usability tests are relevant and practical.
Tim Rotolo
Trymata