Some Best Practices from Jared Spool and UIE

April 11, 2006

One of the blogs that I follow is UIE’s BrainSparks. There were two best practices that Jared Spool posted recently that I found interesting and would like to consider integrating into my practice.

• Two simple post-test questions – these are two questions they ask users after a usability test. I could see using these questions with others to evaluate a current site or in the process of a redesign. The questions are: “what are two things about the design that you liked?” and “what are two things about the design that you did not like?”.
• The one-minute test – This is a practice they use at the end of a meeting with a design team. I could see using this at any meeting. It helps you to see if everyone is on the same page. The idea is to have everyone write down the answers to three questions and to only give them a minute to do it. Then they will have everyone share their answers. Depending on the atmosphere of the meeting, everyone might read their own answers aloud or they may be collected and read anonymously. Here are the questions:
  • What was the big idea? (What was the most important thing you heard at the meeting?)
  • What was your big surprise? (What was the thing you saw or heard that surprised you the most?)
  • What’s your big question? (What’s the biggest unanswered question you have at this time?)