I will outline the best way to get the most out of usability tests. This is what we have found to be most effective when we run our user tests for clients.
Data Analysis
Using MixPanel, or any events based analytics tool, we analyze your data to identify usability sticking points (i.e. "what" is wrong). If you don't have any existing data, we run a UX audit. We can then run user tests on to determine “why” it’s wrong.
UX Research Methods
We design the usability study around the hypotheses that were formed from UX audits, data analysis and just gut feel. The goal is to validate those hypotheses and uncover the "why" behind them. We also identify key performance indicators (usually based on business goals), and test the usability of the features that drive them.
UX Net Promoter Score
A key part of our user testing process is to incorporate net promoter scores, which is a fancy word for the question "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?".
We do this to identify a baseline qualitative user satisfaction. We also do this in follow up tests to identify usability improvements that are otherwise qualitative in nature. Sometimes this also reveals polarizing results that are correlated to demographic, psychographic and perceptions of the user.
Actionable Usability Improvements
We take our findings from the user tests and prioritize the highest impact solutions that will address the findings. We then design new user flows in actionable wireframes, mockups and specs, so that your developers can implement them without any guesswork.