User Testing Resources

Books

• "Handbook of Usability Testing" by Rubin J. and Chisnell, D.

• "A Practical Guide to Usability Testing" by Dumas, J. and Redish, J.

• "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug

• "Usability Engineering" by Jakob Nielsen

For more suggestions, check out the Society for Technical Communication's Usability & User Experience Group's Bookshelf

Online Resources

General Info

• Usability Testing as an Assessment Technique [pdf]

• Dana Chisnell's blog (author of "Handbook of Usability Testing"): www.usabilitytestinghowto.blogspot.com/

  • Templates, examples, and links to other resources from Dana by Christine Perfetti

• "Five Techniques for Getting Buy-In for Usability Testing" by Christine Perfetti

• UsabilityFirst.com

• Usability.gov - the U.S. Government's website on Usability, containing Usability & Accessibility guidelines, methods, and links

• Usability Professionals' Association Resources - good source of all things "usability"

• Society for Technical Communication's Usability & User Experience Group Topics

• Usable Web's User Testing page

• University of Texas at Austin

  • Plan a Usability Test

  • Developing Usability Test Documents

  • Conduct the Usability Test

  • Write Usability Report

• Usability Test Reporting - nice description of Formative vs. Summative Testing

• Sample Usability Test Script - found in "Looking for Downloads" section

• Usability Resource Center's Usability Testing Materials

Usability Testing Techniques

• "5-Second Tests - Measuring Your Site's Content Pages" by Christine Perfetti

• "Interview-Based Tasks: Learning from Leonardo DiCaprio" by Jared M. Spool

• "Inherent Value Testing" by Jared M. Spool

• "Card sorting: a definitive guide" by Donna Spencer and Todd Warfel

• "Card-Based Classification Evaluation" by Donna Spencer

• "What You Should Know About Prototypes for User Testing" by Chris Farnum

• "Remote Online Usability Testing: Why, How, and When to Use It" by Dabney Gough & Holly Phillips