Finding people to do usability testing

Question

Does anyone have recommendations/experience of how to find people willing to do usability testing of web based apps? I suspect I may need people who might actually be potential users, because mine is a commercial/vertical app which contains some processes and terminology which may not mean much to the average joe/jane.

I have a fairly robust prototype of a web app which is designed for people in Sales Management and before I go too much further with it I want to try a couple of key pieces out on some live users. I have a few friendly faces I can turn to (and have already), but I really want strangers who will not feel they need to be nice to me about it.

I'm fine designing the usability tests themselves, it is finding the guinea-pigs that is proving difficult.

Answer 1

I read this a few days ago and it might help:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html

Answer 2

Does your organization have a Sales team that will allow you to borrow appropriate users? I think that would be a good start for Alpha testing of the UI. After that, perhaps your customer can use the Beta UI for further testing.

Answer 3

I've used this service a couple times and have been impressed with the quality of the feedback they provide.

usertesting.com

Answer 4

Don't Make Me Think has the exact chapter you would be interested in. Basically, you should set up your test in such a way that it's not about being nice or not, but it's about finding out whether the user can use it or not. This way you can use all your relatives or friends you want and know.

In a nutshell: set up a desk with a computer that has access to your app, get two chairs, a notepad and a pencil. The book mentions a video link to your co-workers, but let's skip that. You get your tester and place her in front of the computer, while you sit beside her with notepad and pencil at the ready. Be specific about that for the sake of this test, it's technically impossible that she would do something wrong, because that's what you are interested in.

Ask her then to do some specific tasks; You present her with some kind of state in the application, and ask her to do something. Example: "If you would want to do a new entry, how would you go about doing it". Ask her to describe what she's thinking, her train of thought; "I would seek for some kind of 'add' or '+' labeled button, let's see if I can find it. They're usually underneath the lists", etc. Make notes of the subtleties of her gestures and faces, like if she hunts with the cursor for something, or if she's grimacing in frustration.

If she can't find that add button quickly enough, there's a usability problem.

But really, buy the book. It's a great read, worth every penny.

Answer 5

Do you have a list of local companies who could be potential customers for your application? This would be a good place to look; you can simultaneously get users for user testing and make good contacts.

Answer 6

Believe it or not an ad in Craig's List works for us. Simply offer a reward, we use $50 prepaid debit cards, and you can usually get 10 - 20 people per ad.

Answer 7

see useit.com - there are several levels of usability testing, and it is obviously critical to recruit users that are representative of your target market

Answer 8

You could also check out uTest.com, a software testing services that relies on "crowdsourcing" the testing process. While more on the side of functional and technical testing, I'm sure you could negotiate a test project more focused on usability testing.

Answer 9

Take yourself to Starbucks and put a sign on the back of your laptop which says "Ask me for a Free Coffee" make sure you use some screen recording software like Silverback to record the session for later.