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There are many different types of usability testing, but the core elements in most usability tests are the facilitator, the tasks, and the participant.
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The facilitator administers tasks to the participant. As the participant performs these tasks, the facilitator observes the participant’s behavior and listens for feedback. The facilitator may also ask followup questions to elicit detail from the participant.
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Participants are often asked to think out loud during usability testing (called the “think-aloud method”). The facilitator might ask the participants to narrate their actions and thoughts as they perform tasks. The goal of this approach is to understand participants’ behaviors, goals, thoughts, and motivations.
Remote Usability Testing
Practice the technology. Even if you’ve used your company’s tools a million times before, test them with someone you know outside the company, mocking up a real test situation. Make sure the instructions for signing in are clear. Practice sending URLs or tasks to your user and make sure you know how the technology works on your end — and theirs.
Rewrite everything. Write tasks far enough in advance to pilot-test them. In a moderated session, the facilitator can get a user back on track if a task is misunderstood. In an unmoderated session, there is no safety net. The written instructions need to stand on their own. Every instruction, task, and question needs to be fine-tuned to eliminate the potential for misunderstanding. As we know from every study ever done on instructional design, anything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.
Be available. Even for unmoderated studies, be available by email (if not by phone) as much as possible to help with any potential user questions. In moderated sessions, sign in to the testing tool early, in order to know when your participant arrives and to troubleshoot if needed.
Recruit more users. No-show rates for any remote study can be higher than for in-person studies. You also don’t know the quality of an unmoderated session until you’ve watched it. It’s better to add a few more users than you think you need in order to accommodate such problems.